An Old Friend, A New Friendship
by chibifurby
Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. Full summary inside Chapter 30 up. Tplus for suggestive themes. DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

Ok, seeing the other kind stories I'm writing/have written you probably would think I would write a Tokyo Mew Mew story, but I did/am so too bad.

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"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 1

_Eight years ago:_

_Zakuro was sitting on the couch at home, a blanket on top of her, in front of the on television. She was trying to rid herself of sadness by watching some TV. Her best friend, Tohma, had moved to America with his family a few days ago. They had known each other ever since way back when. Though they weren't related in any way, Tohma had always been like an elder brother to her, if not more. They always did stuff together. One was almost never seen without the other. They were inseparable. Also, when one felt down or bothered, they would confide in one another._

_Zakuro got off the couch, blanket still on her, and went to the kitchen to pour her a glass of water for herself. When she returned, the English news was back on. She and Tohma had been learning English together as an elective second language. Ever since, they had adopted the habit of watching the English news every night._

_**"Earlier today, there was a devastating accident in California."**_

_Zakuro choked on her water. 'That's where Tohma lives!' she thought._

_**"A speeding car collided with a stationary car, causing the stationary car to crash into some guard rails that were off to the side. As the car had teetered off the side of the cliff, the driver and passenger were able to climb out of the vehicle, though their eight year old son remain, unconscious in the back seat."**_

_Zakuro had felt her heart beating rapidly._

_**"As the frantic parents tried to get there son out of the car, the car had flipped over the edge and fell 20 feet. By some miracle, the eight year old child had survived the fall, coming out with several broken bones and a concussion. Currently the boy is under heavy surgery. Although doctors still do not know whether young Tohma Nojima will be able to pull through.**_

_Zakuro's glass of water fell though her hands, as she stood there in shook._

Present day:

Zakuro still had nightmares of that day when she heard about Tohma's accident. She had never found out whether or not Tohma had made any kind of recovery. Though she forced herself to be able to face the facts if worse came to worse, she couldn't help but fear that Tohma didn't make it. It has been eight years since that day, and Zakuro was already in high school, a movie star, and a member of the Tokyo Mew Mews, and she still couldn't help dwelling in the past.

One night, after yet another nightmare, Zakuro got out of bed and went down into the kitchen for a glass of water. As she drank, something caught the corner of her eye. She walked over and picked up a picture. It was a picture her and Tohma, her lengthy purple hair fell over her shoulders as Tohma, who had his black hair reaching the bottom of his neck, stood next to her, arm around her shoulder and Zakuro having the opposite hand holding the hand Tohma had around her shoulder. The picture was taken not to long before he moved. Subconsciously she started gripping her glass of water tightly.

"Ow," she gave a small cry of pain as the glass shattered cutting her hand.

As she bent down and gathered most of the glass pieces in her other hand, the doorbell rang.

'Who could be calling at this hour?' Zakuro wondered to herself.

She went to dump the glass shards into the trash can and went to answer the door. When she answered the door, she can face to face with a boy with jet black hair that reached his neck and who was not to much older than herself.

**"Excuse me, but to you know where this address is?" **he asked, though in English, while showing her a piece of paper.

**"Oh, yes," **Zakuro replied, also in English, looking at the paper he was holding.

As soon as Zakuro spoke, the boy realized he was speaking in English.

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm always forgetting I'm not in California anymore," the boy said, this time in Japanese.

"Oh, so you do know how to speak Japanese," replied Zakuro, though hearing that the boy came from California made something go off in her head.

"Yes I do, but that doesn't help me any of finding my new house," he said smiling.

"Not a problem, here, you just go down this road and-"

"Maybe you could write it down for me?" he said, scratching his head.

"Sure, no problem," she said, and feeling the cold night wind said, "Why don't you come in."

"Thanks," he said, rather thankfully, as he walked into the house.

Zakuro went into the living room and got a pen and paper out. The boy followed while taking in her house.

"Wow, you have a really nice house," he commented.

"Thanks," said Zakuro, looking up.

'I can't help thinking I know him from somewhere,' she thought to herself as her continued writing down the instructions..

"Zakuro…" came a small whisper.

Zakuro looked up abruptly.

"Wh-what did you say?" she asked.

"Oh sorry, it's just… it's nothing," the boy said hesitantly.

When Zakuro continued to look at him, he gave in.

"To be honest, I don't even know who this person is," said the boy, "to tell the truth, I was in an accident seven or eight years ago. I had lost my memory then, everything before that is a blank to me. I can't remember anything, except for this one name, Fuijwara Zakuro."

There was a ringing silence. The boy looked at her.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yeah…" she said in a daze, "yeah."

She continued to look at him.

The boy looked nervous.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"What was your name again?" asked Zakuro.

The boy looked at her in confusion. Then, realizing that he had yet to introduce himself, laughed and apologized.

"I'm sorry, I completely forgot to introduce myself," said the boy, "My name is Tohma Nojima. And you are?"

Zakuro had never gotten around to answering his question that night, for she had fainted.

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Well, now that you read this, what do you think, huh? Please review. 


	2. Chapter 2

Waaaaaaaaah i feel so sad that no one reviewed!!!!!!!!!! Execpt for fanXforever who I thank for the review. Well as long as I'm entertaining someone. Anywho, here is the second chapter.

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"Blah" talking 

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 2

It was early morning when Zakuro came to. She woke up to a cool autumn day, and the slight chirping of birds outside her bedroom window.

'Wow, what a dream…' Zakuro thought, lying on her bed, staring the ceiling, 'never had one like that before.'

As she sat up in her bed, she noticed a slip of paper on her desk. She got up, out of her bed and walked over to her desk. She picked up the folded piece of paper, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes, and examined it.

"To Zakuro," it read on the front.

Curious to who left it there, she opened it and read the inside.

"You probably wonder how I know your name, well…it's on your bedroom door. Anyways, thanks for the instructions to my apartment, I can get it for where you left off…I think. I figured that you were tired and that's what caused you to collapse like you did. I carried you to your room so you could sleep and will let myself out. I noticed that the school clothes you laid out for tomorrow is the same as mine. As I am still new here, I was wondering if you could come to my apartment and show me the way to school. If you're going to come, I won't demand you to do so. I pretty sure I could get to the school by myself, after all it's not that hard to miss, is it? Anyways, if you decide not to show up, I'll just see you at school then.

From, Tohma Nojima"

Zakuro was immediately fully awake.

'So it wasn't a dream,' she thought, 'then that means… Tohma!'

Zakuro hurried to get her things ready for school and left the house. She ran toward the address that Tohma had showed her last night. She prayed and prayed that Tohma was still there waiting, and that he hadn't left for school yet. But, when she got to the address, the place was empty. She kicked a nearby trash can in frustration, knocking it over. She leaned on the wall, pant and trying to catch her breath.

"You know, I think littering is against the law," said a voice next to her.

Zakuro spun around to see Tohma, standing there.

"Tohma!" cried Zakuro, in surprise, "I thought you left."

"Nah, just leaving," Tohma replied, he swung his school bag over his shoulder, "So you here to show me a way to get to school? Or do I have to find a way to get there myself?" he asked, grinning.

Zakuro nodded, and they set off. As they walked in silence, Zakuro's mind was racing. Questions popping up, her answering herself, and then more questions. Tohma looked down at Zakuro.

"You ok?" he asked, "You look a little pale."

Zakuro snapped out of her trance and look up at him.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said, forcing a smile, "I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

Tohma nodded, though not believing her.

'So he did survive the crash,' she thought to herself. 'But why didn't anyone tell me about it? Well, obviously they didn't want me to worry. But I would have noticed he hasn't been in contacted…'

Zakuro was so wrapped up in thought that she had walked right past the school gate. Tohma stopped.

"Uh, Zakuro…" said Tohma, looking the school, then to her.

Zakuro look up and back at him. In doing so, she saw that she had walk past the school gate.

"Oh, right, sorry," she said apologetically.

When they walked into school and into class, Tohma was introduced by the teacher to the class and told to sit diagonally from Zakuro. All though class, Zakuro's mind kept wondering to Tohma. As they were dismissed for the day, Zakuro got up to go over to Tohma, but he was surrounded by a group of boys. She stood on tip toe to try and catch his attention. He looked up at her. She mouthed that she'd wait for him, he nodded, and she left the classroom. But, as soon as she left the classroom, she was surrounded by a group of girls. They all started to ask about Tohma.

"So, is he your boyfriend or something?" "We thought you being a celebrity you could do better than him."

Zakuro stammered. "Wh-what are you guys talking about?" she asked.

"Oh, come now Zakuro, we all saw how you couldn't keep your eyes off him." "Admit it!"

"I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about," said Zakuro, trying to push her way out of the crowd, though she felt her face reddening.

As she waited for Tohma by the school gate, students walked by her either laughing out loud or talking behind their hands to one another. She was just about to leave for Café Mew Mew as he came walking up to her.

"Geez, I don't believe them," he muttered to her, "They think I'm going out with you or something. Saying your too good for me. I really don't get people sometimes. I mean we've only known each other not even for 24 hours."

'If only you knew, Tohma,' Zakuro thought to herself.

"So," Tohma said, looking down at her, "you going home?"

Zakuro shook her head, "I need to get to work."

"Oh, you want company while you get there?" he asked.

She smiled at him and nodded. As they were walking toward Café Mew Mew, they began talking about what their classmates said about them, which caused a few blushing, but the pretended that they were unfazed by it. As a cold wind blew, Zakuro started to shiver. She had forgotten her jacket at home. Tohma, who noticed this, smiled and took off his jacket.

"Here," he said, placing the jacket over her shoulders.

"Thanks," she murmured to him.

They had walked all the way to the café and the stop in front of the doors.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked.

Zakuro looked up at him, "Yeah," she said, "Can you get back on your own?" she asked.

Tohma smiled at her again. "I'll find my way."

Zakuro smiled too, as she walked into the café though the double doors.. When she closed the door, she noticed four other girls had quickly ran to pretend to do some sort of job around the café. She shook her head, went in back, and changed into her work uniform. When she came back, they all started to ask her about Tohma. She sighed.

"He's an old friend and nothing more," Zakuro had said firmly, "Yes, Ichigo that is all," she added as she saw the brown haired girl, Ichigo Momomiya, open her mouth to ask her more. Though inside, she wondered if that was really the truth.

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So, what do you think? Please tell me how you feel about the story, that way I'll know if I should continue or not. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	3. Chapter 3

I don't got much to say except just read and review please. No one is reviewing!!!!!!!!

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"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 3

Zakuro had realized that she had kept Tohma's jacket, and set off to return it right after work. All the while she had wondered about Tohma and her feelings toward him. It confused her at first, she knew that she would be his friend no matter what happened, but… When she got to his apartment, she pushed the thought out her mind, and rang the doorbell to his place and Tohma came to answer it.

"Oh, it's you," said Tohma in surprise, "you just come from work?"

Zakuro nodded. She held out his jacket, "Here, you forgot it with me."

"Oh thanks," he said as he took the jacket.

Just then, a voice called out behind them. "So what I heard was true," it said.

They both turned to see an alien floating in the air behind them.

"Pai!" Zakuro shouted, "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to find a soul to take for my Chimera Animal," Pai said, in a matter of fact tone.

Tohma, who thought that Pai was there for Zakuro's soul, got in between them. "Just back off freak," he called to Pai.

"Hee, fool," Pai said under his breath, as he pulled out his fan.

"Tohma, run, now!" shouted Zakuro.

But before Tohma could react, Pai swung his fan and shouted "Fuu-Rai-Sen!"

Tohma was hit back with full force of the attack, hitting the wall of the apartment. He struggled to his feet.

Pai smirked. "Fuu-Rai-Sen!" he shouted again.

Once again, Tohma was hit back against the wall. Zakuro was unable to do anything, for transforming in front of Tohma would reveal that she was a Tokyo Mew Mew. She watched helplessly as Pai shot attack after attack at Tohma, now shouting "Fuu-Hyou-Sen", which shot an ice attack at Tohma, and "Fuu-Rai-Sen", which would either shot Tohma with a blast of strong air or hit him with lightning. Pai continued to attack till Tohma didn't get up anymore, he just lied there, panting.

"Tohma!" Zakuro shouted, running to his side.

"Zakuro…run away…while you still can…" muttered Tohma, who was on the verge of unconsciousness.

But, Zakuro didn't run. She got up and stood in front of Tohma. She took out her transformation pendent.

"Mew Mew Zakuro Metamorphosis," she shouted, as she transformed.

Though as she transformed, Tohma had witnessed this before he lost consciousness.

"Tck," Pai scoffed, and disappeared one the spot.

Zakuro, who figured that she scared him off, turned to Tohma and realized that he was unconscious. Her heart skipped a beat.

'Oh no,' she thought, as her mind raced, 'those attacks didn't kill him, did they?'

Without to much thought, she picked him up and raced off to the Café, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. When she got there she burst through the door, causing Lettuce Midorikawa to drop the stack of plates she was carrying in surprise.

"Keiichiro!" Zakuro shouted.

Keiichiro Akasaka, who was in the kitchen, stuck his head out. "Yes?"

"I need the Mew Aqua now!" Zakuro pleaded.

"Why would you need the-" Keiichiro started, but seeing Tohma in his beaten state, went to the basement of the café to retrieve the Mew Aqua immediately.

Mint Aizawa hurried up to Zakuro, who had followed Keiichiro down into the basement. "What happened?" she asked.

"Yeah, Zakuro, tell us what happened," said Pudding Fong, hopping around as Zakuro placed Tohma on a table and Keiichiro brought out the Mew Aqua.

"We were attack by Pai," she murmured, as Keiichiro applied a little of the Mew Aqua on Tohma. Tohma's body glowed for a few seconds do to the Mew Aqua entering his body, then the light faded, as Tohma's shuddering breath calmed down.

"So your boyfriend paid you a visit," joked Ryou Shirogane, as he entered the room, referring to Pai.

Zakuro gave a hard stare at Ryou, who shut up at sight it. The day before, they had teased her about Pai landing on top of her when the Chimera Animal they were fighting exploded.

"How is he?" Ichigo asked.

"His condition is stable now, though he's still unconscious," Keiichiro informed, "but he still isn't well enough to leave to far from here."

Ryou took the hint and went up to make a guest room in the upstairs where he and Keiichiro both had a room.

"Keiichiro," Zakuro spoke up, Keiichiro looked at her, "could I maybe, stay here to, you know, watch after him?"

There was a teaser in there somewhere, but no one took the chance. Keiichiro nodded.

Keiichiro helped Zakuro carry Tohma up to the top floor into a spare bedroom as Ichigo and the others left.

"So, did he see?" Ryou asked, as Keiichiro placed Tohma in the bed.

"Huh?" Zakuro looked up from Tohma at Ryou.

Ryou pointed at her clothes. She looked at them and realized that she was still in the Mew clothing.

"I don't think so," Zakuro answered as she realized what he was asking, "He was like that when I saw him right after I transformed."

"But before…?"

Zakuro shrugged, as she went back to staring at Tohma's unconscious form.

Ryou sighed as he clapped a hand to his head.

"I don't think it will cause us too much trouble," said Keiichiro, who was heading toward the open door.

"Thanks, Keiichiro," said Zakuro, pulling up a chair to sit next to Tohma's bed, as Keiichiro close the door.

Before long, Zakuro had fallen asleep in her chair. A little after she fell asleep, Tohma started to stir. As he got up, he saw Zakuro sitting in the chair next to him, still in the Mew clothing.

"**It's just as I thought," **Tohma said to himself, "**So I wasn't just imagining it**."

Zakuro's wolf ears twitched at Tohma's voice, but she remained asleep. He sat up and watched her sleeping profile.

"**She really is cute with those ears,"** he laughed softly.

Zakuro shivered in her sleep from the…lack of clothing she was wearing.

Tohma took the covers on him and wrapped them around her. As he did that, Zakuro's eyes flew open.

"Tohma!" she shouted in surprise, taking the covers on her and trying to hide her appearance.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Tohma said apologetically, and noticing that she was too busy trying to hide herself to reply, "You ok?" he asked, attempting to pull the covers off her to look at her face.

She finally gave up and let the covers slide off her. She stared at the floor. "I didn't what you to see me in this form," she muttered softly.

Tohma looked confused, "why not, you think I'd, what, treat you differently because you have this other self?"

Zakuro nodded as she continued to stare at the floor. As she did so, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist. Tohma pulled Zakuro into a hug, working his hands between her protruding tail and back.

"Come on," he whispered into her pointed ear, "give me more credit than that."

A few silent tears fell down Zakuro's face, as she slowly changed back into her own self.

"Come on, we need to get some sleep, we'll walk home together tomorrow in the morning," Tohma said softly.

Zakuro nodded as Tohma helped her onto the bed, where she fell asleep with her face buried in Tohma's chest.


	4. Chapter 4

"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

* * *

Chapter 4

The next morning, Zakuro and Tohma had left Café Mew Mew and headed home. For a while after that, nothing out of the ordinary happened, unless you count everyone talking about how Zakuro Fujiwara had found a boyfriend out of the ordinary, except since Zakuro didn't tell Tohma her last name, he thought it was someone else. Though they were seeing a lot of each other, they really didn't call each other boyfriend/girlfriend. Sure they saw a lot of each other but that was pretty much it. Tohma had started working at the café with everyone else, who he had gotten to know as well. There were several Chimera Animal attacks but none that the Tokyo Mew Mews had a hard time with. Though one night, as they fought with a Chimera Animal, the Cyniclons' ship hovered over the battle.

"Hey, Kisshu, don't miss 'kay?" the blue hair alien said to the green haired one.

The green haired alien, Kisshu, worked at one of the computers where on the screen had a cross-hair on it, which was pointed directly at Ichigo.

"Like I'd miss her, Pai," Kisshu shot back to him.

"Just shoot it already," shouted the smaller brown haired alien.

"Alright already, sheesh, calm down Taruto."

As soon Kisshu was sure he would hit Ichigo, he fired. A bright blue beam of light shot for m the ship and surrounded Ichigo. As the others were still fighting the Chimera Animal, the only one to notice was Tohma. Though he didn't the light would do, he knew that it couldn't be anything that was good. Not that he knew what he could have done about it, he start to run towards the where Ichigo was, where she seemed to be unable to move. As this happened, Zakuro had noticed Ichigo with in the beam of light as well, so she abandoned the fight to try and help her out. Though Tohma and Zakuro were both running toward Ichigo, one never saw the other. They had both reached Ichigo, they managed to push Ichigo out of the light but as they did, for one they crashed into each other, and for another now they were stuck, immobile.

"No!" shouted Taruto, "you weren't supposed to catch those two!"

"Hey! It's not like I meant to get them!" retorted Kisshu.

"What ever you guys, as long as we get one of them the plan should be fine," said Pai indifferently.

"I'd prefer it to be Ichigo though," muttered Kisshu, as Tohma and Zakuro were both suddenly transported into the ship, very much to Ichigo's surprise. See looked up at the floating ship above her.

"Kisshu!" she shouted, "Give them back."

Kisshu looked up at Pai, who nodded.

"You get them back when you give us the Mew Aqua, got it?" said Kisshu, into the ship's speaker's, which projected it out to Ichigo. "You have until the end of the week to give it to us." And with that, the ship vanished taking Zakuro and Tohma with it.

Inside the ship, Zakuro and Tohma appeared in the bay of the ship. They both fell to the floor, having just crashed into each other.

"Zakuro, sorry about that," Tohma said as he helped her up.

"Thank you Tohma," said Zakuro getting up, her hand in his, and looking around, "where are we?"

"In our ship," came a voice from the doorway.

Pai, Kisshu, and Taruto were standing in the doorway, looking at the both of them.

"You again?" Tohma called out, for some reason Tohma had not seen Pai in any of the fights with the previous Chimera Animals.

"Tch," Pai scoffed, "God, this is going to be a lot more trouble than its worth."

"What do you want from us anyway," said Zakuro, subconsciously moving behind Tohma.

"Isn't it obvious," said Pai, "We want the Mew Aqua of course."

"And you're using us to get it?"

"Wow, you're smart," Kisshu said, rather sarcastically.

"And you think you can stop us?" asked Tohma, though feeling Zakuro tugging on his sleeve. "Huh?"

"I'm not feeling any of my power," she mumbled.

"Got it at once, huh?" said Kisshu.

"This ship nullifies all non-Cyniclon powers, any powers at all, which means, I apologize, you can't change back to human," said Pai.

"And that's something to apologize about?" asked Tohma, eyebrows raised.

"It's rather cold in some parts of the ship," said Pai defensively, "and since you don't have that much clothing on when you're a Mew…huh?"

Zakuro waked out from behind Tohma and walked towards Pai.

"Uh…" Pai stared at her.

"PERVERT!" she shouted, as she slapped him across the face.

"And she took it the wrong way…" muttered Tohma, shaking his head.

Pai fell in a crumpled heap.

"Remind me never to get you mad at me," said Tohma.

Zakuro just smiled sweetly.

"Well, as you two will be staying here till we get the Mew Aqua, we got a room for you," said Kisshu, as Taruto started to poke the limp form of Pai.

"We were expecting to catch only one person so there's only one bed in there," said Taruto, still poking Pai.

"Please try and keep it PG in there," said Kisshu as he bent down to pick up Pai, still unconscious.

"And what's that supposed to mean!" shouted Zakuro, as Kisshu ducked out with Taruto. Though there was no replay.

"Shall we just go there, it'd be pointless to stay here," said Tohma.

Zakuro's face was still very red from Kisshu's comment, but nodded and followed Tohma out of the room. They had reached what looked like the bedroom that was made for them and went in. There was nothing in there except for a queen sized bed.

"Uh…" Tohma looked hesitantly at Zakuro, "you take the bed."

She looked up at him. "You sure? The floor doesn't look too comfortable."

"Well unless you'd like to object."

"Well…" Zakuro hesitated, her face becoming red again, "I thought that, if you wanted, I could…well…share the bed…with…you."

Tohma however, didn't blush, and said, "If it's not too much trouble for you."

Zakuro smile and shock her head, as she led him toward the bed, his hand in both of her own. They had both gotten into the bed, both facing the opposite direction, fell asleep almost instantly.


	5. Chapter 5

"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

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Chapter 5

The next day, Tohma and Zakuro woke up to the sound of knocking. As they sat up on the bed, the door opened to reveal Taruto standing in the doorway.

"We got some breakfast ready if you guys want some," he said, rather sleepily.

"Thank," said Tohma, "I think…"

Taruto nodded and walked off toward the dinner room.

"Rather homey, this place, isn't it?" asked Tohma.

Zakuro, choosing not to answer, said instead "You don't think they've poisoned the food, do you?"

"Doubt it," replied Tohma, swinging his legs off the bed, "They need us for the Mew Aqua right?"

"That's true," said Zakuro, still under the bed covers, "would you mind bringing me something?"

"Sure thing," said Tohma as he headed out the door.

After Tohma left, Zakuro crept out of bed and into the nearby bathroom. She found several toothbrushes there and a tube of toothpaste.

'Well, at least they believe in hygiene' thought Zakuro, as she pick up one of the ones that were off to the side.

She expected those to be the ones left for her and Tohma. She started to do her morning things and by the time she had finished and reentered the room, Tohma had returned with 2 muffins, 2 plates of eggs, and 2 cups of orange juice.

"These ok," he asked, holding up the food.

She nodded as she sat on the bedroom floor and she and Tohma started to eat. After they had finished eating, they both went into the dinning room of the ship, where Kisshu was flipping through the channels of a TV and Taruto watched with a bored look on his face.

"I don't see why you humans find this so interesting," Kisshu said, as he stopped at a basketball game.

"I could teach you how to play basketball later, if you got a gym," said Tohma, heading into the kitchen, where Pai was stuck doing the dishes, "need help?" he added to Pai.

Pai shook his head and Tohma returned to the dinning room.

"We got one of those in the back of the ship," said Kisshu, gesturing with his thumb.

"This is one big ship," commented Tohma.

"Tell me about it," complained Taruto, "The first day I was in here, I tried to get to the bathroom and ended up in the garden."

"You have a garden on this ship?" asked Zakuro, bemused.

"It surprised me too," said Kisshu.

"Well, we could go there and I'll teach you how to play," said Tohma.

"Sure, why not," said Pai, coming out of the kitchen drying his hands on a towel.

Zakuro pulled Tohma aside. "What are you doing, teaching them how to play basketball?"

"What, you expect them to learn by themselves?" asked Tohma.

"No, but, they're the enemy," she said in a whisper, so the others won't hear.

"I don't think so," said Tohma, "I don't think they would have attacked us like they do if they weren't commanded to."

"Commanded to?" Zakuro repeated.

Tohma nodded.

For the rest of the day, Tohma had taught Kisshu, Pai, and Taruto how to play the game of basketball while Zakuro watched on the side.

'Well, they seem harmless now,' Zakuro thought to herself, 'maybe Tohma has a point to all the "they wouldn't attack us if they weren't commanded to" thing'

As she was lost in thought, Kisshu accidentally knocked the ball flying in Zakuro's direction.

"Head's up," he shouted.

Zakuro looked up in time to see Pai intercept the ball before it had hit her.

"You ok?" he asked her.

Zakuro nodded, "why didn't you just let me get hit?" she asked him, "Aren't we supposed to be enemies?"

"Well, I…uh…" Pai stammered.

"Pai!" shouted Kisshu from across the court, "Hurry it up!"

"Right, coming," Pai called back, and left Zakuro to her pondering.

As it started to get late, Zakuro returned to the bedroom as the guys took a shower.

'Why didn't Pai answer me,' she thought, 'was Tohma right and they don't want to fight? Or is it because he likes me…? Ew.' She shook her head to rid herself of the thought.

"Thinking about Pai?" asked Tohma, walking into the room and pass Zakuro, full dressed after coming out of the bathrooms.

"N-no," Zakuro stammered, "what makes you say that?"

"Cause your face is all red," teased Tohma, turning to face her.

To this, Zakuro's face really did turn red and shouted, "Tohma! Stop being so mean." She ran up to him and started to beat her fists lightly on his chest, as he backed away from her continuous blows and her repeats of "Stop it. Stop it. Stop it."

He continued backing up, laughing, till he reached the end of the bed, where he knocked into it, causing Zakuro to bump into him and making them both fall onto the bed, Zakuro falling on top of Tohma. There was an embarrassing silence as Zakuro's legs slid off of Tohma and onto the bed on either side of him. Zakuro's eyes stared into his.

"Oi!" came Kisshu's voice from above, "Keep it down, down there."

"Yeah, you're one to talk," Tohma called back, propping himself up on his arms, Zakuro still looking at him with a transfixed stare, "have you heard yourself snore, I'm surprised Ichigo doesn't hear it all the way down on Earth."

Laughter came from above them as Pai and Taruto started laughing their heads off.

Tohma, laughing slightly, looked back into Zakuro's eyes, making her ears twitch slightly. All of a sudden, Zakuro had closed her eyes and brought her lips to Tohma's in a kiss. Tohma, who was at first very taken-aback, returned her kissed and, in turn, closed his eyes. Zakuro started to run her tongue over Tohma's as they continued to kiss. They remained like that for a minute or two, then, while still kissing, Zakuro opened her eyes. Horror filled her eyes as she suddenly realized what she had done, and pulled away quickly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to, I…" she was stammering, "I didn't…I…I-I'm going to go to bed," she ended up saying.

With that, she got off of Tohma, and got under the bed covers, facing away from Tohma. Tohma, who was sitting there very confused, also got under the covers. Soon afterwards he turned to see the back of Zakuro's head, her wolf's ears drooping.

'**She's a strange one to figure out**,' he thought to himself, '**She continues to say she doesn't like anyone to everybody, and yet…**'

Zakuro, still with her back to him, said, "S-sorry about that." It was barely a whisper, but Tohma could still hear her clearly, "I don't know what came over me. I guess I'm… a little confused right now."

As she said this Tohma moved over to her and hugged her from behind, which made her jump and her ears to stand straight up.

"You seem pretty decided to me," murmured Tohma.

Zakuro's hands found their way to Tohma's hands that were still wrapped around her waist, ears dropping again slightly.

"Well, I…" Zakuro couldn't find anything to say.

"Shh," Tohma said softly, burrowing his face in the crook of her neck.

Zakuro gave a small gasp as she felt his lips press against her neck. A tear slid down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, turning to face him.

"There's no need for an apology," Tohma said, pulling her closer.

"No, the truth is, I've been keeping something from you,"

Tohma looked down at her. "What do you mean?"

"Ever since you told me your name, I've kept something form you."

"What is it?"

"The truth is, I knew you before you moved to California."

"I'd think I'd remember you, Zakuro."

Zakuro shook her head. "Not if you forgot in the accident."

"What are you…"

"The accident caused you to lose all memory of me, well, almost all."

At first Tohma looked confused, but then it dawned on him. "Zakuro Fujiwara, you're Zakuro Fujiwara?"

She nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know," she said, crying into his chest, "I guess I was too busy trying to recreate our old friendship, without you realizing."

Tohma found nothing to say to this, so he just rubbed her back soothingly, trying to calm her down.


	6. Chapter 6

"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

* * *

Chapter 6

During the night before, Zakuro had cried herself to sleep in Tohma's soothing arms. The morning started up the same as the day before, Tohma brought Zakuro a breakfast and he continued to teach Kisshu, Pai, and Taruto how to play basketball, though they had ended before it was time for dinner. Tohma had taken a shower and was lying on the bed with nothing but a towel around his waist, waiting for his clothes to finish washing. Just then, the door to the bedroom open to reveal Zakuro, who waked in with a towel wrapped around her chest and hair, having just placed her Mew clothing in the washer too, with her tail hanging down to prevent it lifting up the towel. As soon as she saw Tohma lying there on the bed, her ears, which were seen poking out of the towel on her head, pricked up as did her tail, which pulled up her towel past her backside, though she didn't seem to care.

"Hey," she said enthusiastically, jumping onto the bed causing the towel on her head to fall off. She sat down on top of Tohma's bare stomach

"Was your shower that good?" Tohma asked, her rather taken by surprise by her exuberant attitude.

"Something like that," she shrugged, kissing him on the cheek.

"I'll need to go check if Pai put something into your drink or something." Tohma joked, brushing a strand of hair beyond her ear.

"You go do that," she said as she slightly licked Tohma on the spot where she had kissed him, much like a wolf would to a mate. Then, she laid down on top of Tohma, her head on his chest. Tohma started to nibble on the tip of Zakuro's ear. She gave a soft moan and bit her lip as Tohma continued to nibble on the tender part of her ear. Just then, Pai had opened the door to their room, their just washed clothing in his hands. Tohma stopped chewing on Zakuro's ear and looked toward the door.

"I could've gotten them myself, you know," Tohma said to him.

"Yeah well, I was going in this direction anyway," Pai replied, pointed in the direction of the kitchen.

As Zakuro attempted to prop herself, Pai noticed that her towel was still being held up by her tail, causing him to see up her towel. This caused him to go bright red.

"Here just take it," he said, holding out the clothing and looking away quickly.

Tohma looked at Zakuro, who took the hint and went to get the clothes from Pai.

"Thanks," she said to him taking the clothes from him, which made him go even redder, as he just stood there. "Uh, Pai," she said, who was staring at her, and broke out of his trance.

"Huh?"

She pushed him out, "We can't have you watching us change now can we?" And with that, she closed the door.

She dropped the clothes on the floor next to the bed and hopped onto Tohma again.

"Shouldn't we go have dinner first?" Tohma asked her.

Zakuro giggled, "I guess."

Zakuro got up, though Tohma still didn't move.

"You coming or what?" asked Zakuro.

"Tomorrow," Tohma muttered, "The deal is dealt tomorrow."

"Us for the Mew Aqua…" Zakuro became gloomy.

Dinner wasn't as cheerful as it was the last two days were. Zakuro and Tohma didn't talk as much as they did before.

Later that night, after Zakuro had fallen asleep in Tohma's arms again, Kisshu and Pai entered their room.

"You wanted to talk to us?" asked Pai

Tohma looked up and nodded. He took the hand that Zakuro wasn't sleeping on and brought a finger to his mouth to tell them to talk quietly.

"So, what up?" asked Kisshu.

"This Deep Blue you're trying to get the Mew Aqua for," Tohma said, "is there some reason you follow him so blindly?"

"Because he promised us that we'd get this planet back for us," replied Pai.

"Is there any guarantee that he will?" asked Tohma.

"Well that…uh…" Pai had no response to this.

"You know, there is always a possibility you can live with humans instead of killing them all," said Tohma.

"But you humans are the ones who are killing the planet, isn't that right?" asked Kisshu.

Tohma sighed and gently pulled his arm from underneath Zakuro out, careful not to wake her.

"That is true," replied Tohma, "but that's why we have nature freaks like Masaya Aoyama to try and make things better."

"One person won't be enough to help an entire planet," said Pai.

"That is true, but he isn't the only one, there are many others," Tohma corrected him. "Instead of trying to kill every human and having to rebuild by yourselves you could live with humans and try and help. Just cause this Deep Blue guy says he would give you the planet, what's stopping him from taking it for himself?"

"We'll think about your offer, but until then…" Kisshu didn't have go on.

"Well… I guess I can only wait for that time to come," said Tohma.

"Though don't count on it," said Pai.

"Then we're done here," said Tohma, lying back down, arm over Zakuro again and they left.

The next day, the ship descended back down to Earth for the exchange. The other Mews decided that two lives were more important than the little Mew Aqua the possessed now. As the ship landed in the middle of the street, Zakuro, Tohma, Pai, Taruto, and Kisshu all appeared at the entrance to the ship.

"Hey Tohma," whispered Kisshu.

"Yeah?"

"We've decided that we'll take you up on your offer, though just not now."

As Tohma looked at him, Mint started to walk up from the other side of the street, holding the Mew Aqua.

"We just need some answers from Deep Blue. But remember, if he gives us a good enough guarantee, we're enemies, and what happened for the past three days never happened. Got it?"

Tohma nodded, "hope to see you on the right side next time."

Pai nodded.

When Zakuro and Tohma descended off the ship, the engines fired up again. As the ship raised up into the sky Kisshu called out, "See you soon." And the ship disappeared.

The other Mews looked blankly at the spot where the ship had disappeared.

"I thought they wanted the Mew Aqua," said Zakuro, as they drew level with the others.

"Well, we had a little talk," said Tohma simply, "and they obviously went with what I said." And seeing the look on their faces, "It's nothing that you guys need to concern yourselves with."

As the fact that they had return had sunk in, the girls ran over to hug Zakuro, as Tohma walked over to Keiichiro and Ryou.

"So you guys were actually going to hand over the Mew Aqua for us?" he asked them.

"Ryou was against it at first, but he gave in to the girls," said Keiichiro, looking over at the group of girls, still hugging Zakuro.

"Wow, Shirogane, I'm so touch that you had our best interests at heart," Tohma said, sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Ryou replied, indifferently.


	7. Chapter 7

The seventh chapter of this fic. As long as I'm entertaining someone, Bandit-sama, I'll continue writing. I know that I updated four chapters the day before, but my mind won't stop spitting out ideas.

* * *

"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 7

They had walked back to Café Mew Mew, and the girls were still with Zakuro talking about what had happened during their capture. She had told them everything, and Tohma told the guys, except they had purposely left out whatever had happened in their room. It wasn't long till Keiichiro had noticed Zakuro was still transformed and he mentioned it to Tohma and Ryou. They both looked around at Zakuro to see that Keiichiro was right.

"Yo, Zakuro," Ryou called out, making all the girls to look up at him, "you know there is no reason for you to stay in that form."

"That's something I've been meaning to talk to you about," Zakuro said, as her gaze shifted from Ryou to Tohma, "I still can't change back."

"What? Still?" asked Tohma, "But you're not in that ship anymore."

"I know, that's what I don't get," Zakuro said, a little worried.

"So you can't change back?" asked Keiichiro, "And this happened on their ship as well?"

"Yeah," replied Tohma, "They had some sort of field that stopped all non-Cyniclon type powers. Though, I would think that it wouldn't continue if we weren't on the ship."

"I thought so too," said Zakuro, "But I've been trying to change back."

"Maybe we should run a check-up to see what's going on," said Keiichiro, and Zakuro nodded.

When they got downstairs Keiichiro started running some tests. After he did the scanning, everyone crowded around him and the computer, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Well, there's no lasting harm, from what I see," said Ryou, who was also looking over Keiichiro's shoulder, "But there is a residue of whatever was blocking your powers that you got on their ship. It will go away, just not now."

"And you can't tell me how long it will be?" asked Zakuro.

Keiichiro shook his head.

"Great," Zakuro sighed, "And I'm supposed to walk around with this tail and these ears poking out?"

He shrugged.

"In any case we'd better call it for a day," said Tohma, "Come on, I'll walk you home. It's dark out so I doubt anyone will see you like this."

Zakuro nodded and ran after him. Tohma found a hooded trench coat from the closet in the room where he was placed after he was attacked by Pai. Tohma gave it to Zakuro to cover herself and they left the Café Tohma parted from Zakuro when they reach the gate to her house. As Zakuro opened the door to her house, the last two people she wanted to see at the moment came running up to her. It was her parents.

"Zakuro where have you been? We got a call from your school saying you missed the last four days of school," asked her mother.

"Now now," said her father to her mother, "I'm sure Zakuro had a reasonable answer to all this, don't you Zakuro?"

"Uh…" The truth was that Zakuro had no answer to this, not being able to tell her parents about her abduction.

"It was with that Tohma kid isn't it," said her mother, anger creeping into her voice.

"How do you know about Tohma!?" asked Zakuro in amazement.

"Like we can't put two and two together," scoffed her mother. "Your school mentioned that this Tohma kid was missing classes as well and asked if there was a connection between you two. And we found this note on your desk," she said, waving the note that Tohma had written to her the night he arrived in Japan.

"You went into my room?" asked Zakuro stunned.

"Yeah we did," said her mother, "And may I ask what this is?" She held up a large glass ball. Inside was a small silver ring with a heart shaped amethyst gem on it.

Zakuro realized what her mother was holding in a second. Tohma had bought her that when they had gone to a fair that was held in the city square. She had kept it in the glass ball, cherishing it. "That's mine," she shouted.

"Yeah?" asked her mother, "a gift from this Tohma kid, huh?" And she threw the ball at the wall, causing it to shatter. Zakuro let out a cry of shock and sadness when the ball hit the wall.

Zakuro decide on the spot what she was going to do. She ran over and picked up the ring within the shards of glass and ran up into her room, her dad calling after her. She pulled out a suitcase from underneath her bed and started to pile clothes and belongings into it. She closed the suitcase and pick up other gifts that she got from Tohma, which included an amethyst necklace and earrings (man he spoiled her) in her hand along with the ring. She opened the window, suitcase in hand, as her parents came to her door.

"What do you think your doing?" shouted her mother.

"What does it look like?" asked Zakuro, foot on the windowsill, "I'm leaving."

"Are you crazy?" said her father, "This is the second floor. Zakuro!" He called as she jumped out.

Her father and mother rushed to the window and looked down, expecting to see there daughter, but all they saw was the trench cloak at the bottom.

"Where are you looking?" Zakuro asked, standing on a tree branch next to the window.

They turned around to see Zakuro in her Mew outfit, they were stunned at her appearance. Zakuro took that chance to leap to the next roof over and then the roof next to that. She continued to jump from roof to roof until she reached Tohma's apartment. She landed in front of his door and knocked. Tohma answered the door only to be knocked back by a sobbing Zakuro, who flung herself into his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

HAPPY HALLOWEEN PEOPLE!!!!!!!! This is the eighth chapter of my story. I'd like to thank NekoBun for the great review. NEKO!!!!! kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty...ok...I'm done... Anyways I've said this before one other stories, as long as I'm entertaining someone, I'll keep writing/typing.

* * *

"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 8

Tohma helped the crying Zakuro inside the apartment and sat her down beside the table in the middle of the room. As Tohma went back outside to get Zakuro's belongings, Zakuro peered through bleary eyes around the room. Even in her sadden state, she realized that this was the first time she had actually set foot into Tohma's apartment. It was a small room with a sink and stove in on corner, a TV in another, his bed, which was made up on the floor, across the TV, a dresser next to the TV, and a bathroom beside the bed area. When Tohma came back in with Zakuro's suitcase, he set it on the floor next to the dresser and sat down next to Zakuro.

"What happened?" he asked, taking her hands in his.

When he asked this, tears started to well up in Zakuro's eyes again as she buried her face in his chest. She explained in a muffled voice, her head still in his chest, about what had happened between her and her mother. Though most of her words were indistinguishable, Tohma got the general gist of what had happened.

"There, there," he said, rubbing her back in a soothing way, "It'll be alright."

Zakuro lifted her head and attempted to wipe away the flow of tears running down her cheek. "I'm sorry you must see me crying like this," she apologized in a shaking voice.

Tohma shook his head, "No," he said, as he brought her into a close embrace, "in times like these, it's best to just let it all out."

Zakuro nodded as a fresh wave of tears started to escape her eyes, and she buried her head into his shoulder.

Zakuro had apparently cried herself asleep and Tohma had placed her in her bed. After placing the covers over her, he left the room and stepped outside the apartment. As he stepped onto the balcony, he stared up into the full moon, lost in thought. After a few minutes of stargazing, he jumped as he felt something between his arms. He looked down to see his bed covers slip around his waist, as he felt Zakuro's warm body press against the small of his back. Tohma looked down between his arms to see Zakuro, wearing his bed covers like a hooded cloak, hugging him from behind.

"You'll catch a cold if you stay out here, dressed like that," mumbled Zakuro head resting on Tohma's back.

Tohma chucked. "I'm not too worried about that," he said, placing his hands on Zakuro's. "But suit yourself, let's go back in."

When they went in, Zakuro literally crawled back onto the bed, tail between her legs. Tohma joined her under the covers, as he slipped his hands around her waist, his chest pressing against her back. Tohma nipped Zakuro's ear in an affectionate way and Zakuro giggled.

"Good night," Zakuro said over her shoulder.

"Good night," Tohma whispered into her ear and holding her closer to him, making her blush slightly.

The next morning, by the time Zakuro had woken up, Tohma was already up.

"Here, eat up," he said, sliding a bowl across the table to her, as she crawled over.

"What about you?" she asked, digging her chopsticks into the bowl of rice in front of her.

"I've already eaten, you seemed pretty tired last night so I thought you might want to sleep in a little," Tohma explained, as he went to he dressers and took out his school uniform.

As he went into the bathroom, he stuck his head back out. "You might want to hurry up a little, or we're going to be late."

"But I don't want to go back to school," Zakuro pouted like a little child.

"That's not our choice," Tohma said with a shrug.

"Besides, I can't go outside looking like this," said Zakuro, tugging at her pointed ears.

"Sure you can," Tohma said from inside the bathroom, "Don't you remember what day it is?"

Zakuro looked up at a calendar that was pinned up on the wall. It read October 31, Halloween.

"You could just say that you made a costume to look like…well, yourself," Tohma went on.

"Fine," moaned Zakuro, "I guess I better get ready too." She opened her suitcase and brought out her own school uniform. She got dressed in the room while Tohma was occupying the bathroom. When they both were ready they headed out of the apartment, Tohma saying goodbye to the landlord. As they entered the school area, they noticed that many other students were dressed up as well. Zakuro started to feel subconscious.

"Their all looking at me, I just know it," Zakuro moaned, not wanting to see if she was correct or not.

"No their not," said Tohma.

He was right. The other students were too busy laughing at each others costumes to notice Zakuro's appearance.

"I just know they are, and it won't work by saying their not," she said, clinging onto Tohma's arm.

"Ok, now they're staring," said Tohma, coming to an abrupt stop.

"Huh?" Zakuro looked around her. The other students were now indeed staring at them.

"Why are they staring now?" asked Zakuro.

"Super star, Zakuro Fujiwara clinging onto a guy that she supposedly did not know for more than two months," Tohma explained.

"Is that why their staring," asked Zakuro. "Ah, forget them then," she said, clinging onto Tohma's arm even tighter.

Tohma shrugged and continued to walk into the school.

After a long day of school, they both headed to Café Mew Mew. It was apparent from the moment they entered the Café that Keiichiro and Ryou…well Keiichiro at least had spent all night decorating the place for Halloween. They other four girls were already there and they all seemed to have the idea to be in their Mew forms too. Zakuro and Tohma headed off into the back to change into their uniforms as the others got ready to open the café. As the five girls and Masaya helped serve the guests in front, Keiichiro and Tohma were busy in the kitchen, Keiichiro working on a pumpkin shaped cake and Tohma was washing the dirty dishes. When Keiichiro had finish with the cake and took it outside, Mint came into the kitchen and walked over to where Tohma was washing the dishes.

"So, did something happen between you two that made Zakuro this happy?" asked Mint, leaning against the counter.

"What do you mean?" asked Tohma, drying his hands off after finishing washing the last plate.

"I guess what I'm really trying to figure out is why Zakuro is so interested in you," replied Mint, her expression unreadable.

"I'm sorry, I still don't know what you-" before Tohma could complete his sentence, Mint had put both hands to either side of his face and brought her lips to his. Tohma was so surprised at this that he dropped the towel that he was drying his hands with.

CRASH!!

Tohma finally pushed Mint off him and turned around to see Zakuro, standing in the doorway, a pile of shattered plates at her feet.

"Zakuro, this-" before Tohma could attempt to explain, Zakuro ran out, tears streaming from her eyes. "Zakuro!" he called after her.

Tohma raced out to try and catch her only to almost run smack into Lettuce.

"Sorry," Tohma apologized quickly and took off after Zakuro again, who had just then ran out of the café. "I'm sorry Keiichiro," he called as he past him, and threw the apron he was wearing into Keiichiro's hands.

Lettuce, who was still shaken at the near collision, heard a soft laugh from the kitchens. When she peered in, she saw Mint, leaning over the sink. Mint laughed softly again.

"Serves him right," Mint said, staring into to soapy water.

Lettuce stood there horrorstruck at what she had just heard.

* * *

As you can see, I not a big fan of Mint. I like her, just her less than the others...something about rich people I don't like... 


	9. Chapter 9

I'd like to thank Mew-Sahara for all the great reviews and...that's about it...

* * *

"Blah" talking

'Blah' thinking

**Blah** In English(remember this is in Japan so the normally speak Japanese from what I last heard)

_Blah_ Past events

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 9

Zakuro ran on and on. She didn't even know where she was going, she just ran. She could not believe what she had just witnessed, Mint, her greatest admirer, kissing Tohma, her boyf-… 'That's right,' she thought, slowly coming to a slow walk. 'We're not boyfriend and girlfriend… he's free to be with…whomever his wants…' She continued to walk as her feet lead her to the town park. She walked over to the swing set and sat down on one of the swings. For a couple of minutes, she sat there, alone.

"Well, well, well, what's a pretty thing like you out here alone," came a voice behind her.

Before she could turn around, a pair of think, strong arms closed around her, pinning her arms to her sides.

"Let go of me!" shouted Zakuro, trying to free herself, but with no success.

A few seconds later she found herself bound by a length of rope around her arms and body with six guys standing over her.

"Struggle all you want, beautiful, I like girls who try struggle," said one of the guys, bending down and clamping her chin in his hand.

"Sicko!" she screamed, thrusting her knee into the guys face, knocking him out.

"You shouldn't have done that," said another guy, "You just made it much worse for yourself. We'll make sure of that."

"Get away from me!" Zakuro shouted, as the five other guys closed in.

"You know, when someone says to get away from them, you should really listen to them," came another voice from behind the guys.

They all looked around. Tohma was standing there, leaning on a tree.

"Tohma!" called Zakuro.

Tohma made no response to Zakuro's cry, but continued staring at the other guys.

"Back off punk," said a guy, pulling out a switchblade, "If you know what's good for you."

Tohma pushed himself up from the tree. "By all means," he said, arms held out to the side.

The guy ran toward Tohma and thrusted the knife where Tohma's heart was. But before the knife made contact, Tohma ducked under the knife and slide behind the guy, grasping the guy's arm behind his back. He tried to wrench his arm out of Tohma's grasp, But Tohma just kept putting more and more pressure on the guy's arm…until it snapped. The guy fell to the ground, unconscious. Zakuro look on, horrified at what Tohma just did. Tohma bent down and pick up the fallen knife and stuck it in his back pocket.

"Anyone else?" he asked.

Three other guys charged at Tohma, leaving the leader and Zakuro alone. As the gang leader saw his followers get beaten down, he started to franticly untie Zakuro.

"Here, take her," he cried, pushing Zakuro toward Tohma as he turned on him.

As Zakuro stumbled toward Tohma, he gently pushed her behind him. As soon as Tohma turned around as he sat Zakuro down, the leader pulled out his own knife.

"Die!" he shouted, thrusting his knife at Tohma.

Tohma spun around and caught the knife with his hand, the blade going though his palm. The leader was now frightened at how the blade didn't even seem to faze Tohma, who clenched the leader's fist in his own, blade still in his palm, and brought out the blade in his back pocket.

"No, wait," cried the leader, as Tohma flipped open the blade.

Zakuro, realizing what Tohma was about to do, sprang to her feet and ran toward Tohma.

"No!" she shouted, as Tohma started to bring the knife down toward the leader's stomach. She grasped Tohma's blade arm and clasped it to his side by wrapping her arms around Tohma's arm and body, like the first guy did to her.

Tohma slowly let go of the leader's hand. The leader automatically released the blade and ran for it. Tohma collapsed, clutching the hand with the knife in it. Without saying a word to Zakuro, Tohma wretched the knife out with his teeth. Seeing Tohma's blood spill over the ground petrified Zakuro. Tohma, got up, and removed his jacket.

"Here," he said, in a soft voice, placing his jacket onto Zakuro's shoulders. She seemed to jump when she felt Tohma place the jacket onto her. She looked up at him. "My apartment keys are in there. I won't force you to go back, but I ask that you do. I don't have any spare keys. I'm going to head back to the café to get this hand healed and help them out for the rest of the night." He started to head back in the direction of the café. "Oh, and just so you know," he said over his shoulder, "That kiss was not my doing, nor did I enjoy it."

Zakuro stayed there, kneeling on the ground, for a few minutes. She jumped when she heard footsteps, going in her direction.

"Who's there?" asked Zakuro.

"It's me," came a timid voice.

Zakuro looked up. It was Lettuce.

"Oh, it's you," said Zakuro, looking back down at the puddle of blood in front of her. "What do you want?"

"J-just to say that what you saw… you shouldn't blame Tohma about it," Lettuce said, "Mint forced the kiss on him when she knew you were coming. She wanted to make you jealous and hate Tohma."

"Why would she do that?" asked Zakuro.

Lettuce shrugged, "That's all I know." And she too headed back to the café

After a while, Zakuro got up, and headed toward Tohma's apartment.

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GAAAAAAAAAH Tohma seemed a little too evil than what I had imagined. Anyways, Zakuro now knows the truth, though whether she believes it or not is unknown. 


	10. Chapter 10

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 10

It was already an hour past when the incident occurred. Zakuro was lying on the bed facing away from the door. She heard the door open and Tohma stepping into the room, but she didn't move, pretending to be asleep. She expected to hear Tohma change and climb into bed, but instead, she felt a hand on her shoulder and lips press to her cheek.

"Regardless of what you think, I love you," she heard Tohma whispered. A shiver went down her back, but she didn't move. Then when she heard him curse, "Damn, the blood's getting everywhere. Better go rap this up."

'Wait a second,' Zakuro thought to herself, 'I thought he went back to the café to fix his hand.'

She carefully peered over her shoulder, making sure that Tohma wouldn't see her, and saw Tohma in the bathroom, rapping his bloody hand in a length of cloth. As he walked back toward the bed, she quickly turned back around, feigning sleep. But instead of lying down next to her, he sat down against the opposite wall and so after fell asleep in an upright position. After he fell asleep, she got up. Tohma just sat there, breathing gently. Zakuro stood up and walked over to the sleeping form of Tohma, dragging the blanket behind her. She sat down in the center of his crossed legs, the blanket covering them both. As she leaned against Tohma's warm body, she started to get drowsy, her ears started to droop, and her eyelids began to close.

The next time Zakuro woke up, it was already morning. She was lying on her side, sleeping against the wall. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around the room. Tohma had already left and there was a note on the table. Zakuro got up and walked over to the table and pick the note up and read it.

"Dear Zakuro,

I stepped out for a bit to discuss something with Keiichiro. Help yourself to some food. I should be back before 10 o'clock. See you in a bit.

Tohma"

Zakuro sat down, one hand holding the note, the other absent-mindedly picking at the ends of her nightgown. She looked up at the digital clock on top of the TV to check the time. It read 9:30 A.M. Sunday, November 1. A few minutes later, she heard a key sliding into the lock and the door swung open. Tohma walked into the room, his hand completely mended. He looked up at her.

"Oh, you're awake," he said, walking over to the table. "Eat anything yet?" Zakuro shook her head. Tohma held out a hand, "Come on, we'll go grab something to eat then." As Zakuro took his hand and got up, the side of her nightgown slid down her shoulder, revealing part of her breast. "Maybe you should change into something else, before we step outside," Tohma said, quickly pull Zakuro's sleeve back into place.

Zakuro smiled at Tohma's expression and she started to remove her top. Tohma quickly looked away. "What?" asked Zakuro playfully, as she rummaged around in her suitcase, "Am I that unattractive?" She got up and place on a white top and went back into the suitcase.

Tohma, thinking that Zakuro had at least covered herself by now, turned around, only to see a half dressed Zakuro. He faced the other way again. "You're purposely doing this to me, aren't you?" he said to her.

"Yep," Zakuro giggled, her tail swaying back and forth. She put on a long purple skirt and a light blue vest and went up to Tohma. "Ready."

Tohma turned around again and was relived to see a fully clothed Zakuro. "Shall we go then?" he asked.

Zakuro nodded and took Tohma's hand as they walked out the door. They ate at a restaurant and afterwards walked around looking at the many stores. Zakuro felt like nothing had happened between them. It was like she didn't see Tohma and Mint kiss and there was no friction in their relation. Tohma was happy to see a joyful Zakuro prancing around next to him. As they walked on they heard a cry in their direction.

"Tohma!"

Tohma turned around only to be bowled over by a girl with long dark blue hair.

"Tanya! Get off me," Tohma said, trying to get the girl hugging him off.

Unexpected jealousy rose up within Zakuro. Tanya looked at her with her dark blue eyes.

"Tohma, don't tell me this girl's the girl you've been seeing," said the blue haired girl, Tanya.

"Yes, this is Zakuro, Tanya," Tohma said gesturing at Zakuro.

Tanya got off of Tohma and looked Zakuro hard in the eyes. "Nice to meet you," Tanya said in an unexpectedly cheerful tone, holding out her hand.

"I…what?" Zakuro was confused at Tanya's unexpected behavior and was at a loss for words.

"Don't worry," said Tohma, hugging Tanya from behind, "It takes a while to get used to her."

"Ok…first of all who is she and how do you know her?" asked Zakuro, who couldn't be any more confused, and was a little bit jealous at how close they were to each other.

"This is my cousin Tanya, she moved back here with her family a year ago," Tohma explain.

Zakuro felt relieved that it wasn't anything more than that. After a few minutes of talking, Zakuro and Tohma left Tanya to do her things as they headed back to Tohma's apartment. They didn't walk too far until Tohma realized that he had forgotten to ask Tanya something and told Zakuro to wait for a second while he went to find Tanya again. While Zakuro waited the same group of guys from the night before with an additional three people came up behind her. One of the guys grabbed her and pinned her arms over her head against the nearby wall.

"You got away from us last time, pretty, but this time, your boyfriend isn't here to help you out," he said, his breath smelling heavily of tobacco.

Zakuro gagged at the smell.

The scene started to draw a crowd of people. Murmurs went though the crowd as they watched the scene in front of them.

"Hey, what's going on here?" came Tohma's voice. Tohma had pushed himself though the crowd and was standing there, two unconscious people lying in front of him. "You guys again?"

Once again it was the rest of the gang against Tohma, and once again Tohma fought them single handedly. But this time, the gang leader had a different plan. He pulled Zakuro in front of him and pulled out a gun.

"Alright don't move or your girl here takes one to the head," he said holding the gun up to Zakuro's temple and his hand over her mouth. Zakuro's eyes widened in fear.

Tohma had just punched out the last gang member when he realized he was not in any position to fight anymore. Tohma tried to get the guy to point the gun somewhere else.

"Hey, if you want to point that gun at someone, why don't you point it at me then, huh?" Tohma said, his eyes shifting from Zakuro's fearful face to the gang leader.

"That's a good idea, but no," the gang leader said, amused, "I don't think physical pain works all that well on you when it comes to this girl, but I bet mental pain works just fine."

"How about you?" Tohma asked, somehow seeming a little less worried now. "Does physical pain work on you?"

"What are you-" before he completed his question, he was hit in the back of the head with a wooden sign post. He was immediately knocked out. Tanya was standing behind the unconscious gang leader holding the sign post in her hands.  
"Nice," Tohma said, grinning at Tanya. Tohma quickly ran over to Zakuro, who knelt down on the floor, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, thanks," she said, looking up at him, "…again."

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You'd think that after all that's happened the day before, that they'd lay off her. hm? 


	11. Chapter 11

Mew-Sahara your the best for sticking around for so long. THANK YOU. Now the rest of you need to review to. NOW!!!!!!!!! I COMMAND YOU TO REVIEW NOW!!! DO IT!!!...Ok...I 'bout done.

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Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form? 

Chapter 11

Tohma had decided that it would be the best if they had gone home immediately even though it was only mid-day. Tanya had suggested they went to her house for the rest of the day and over night as well. Zakuro headed to Tanya's house first as Tohma went to the apartment to get some stuff for the night. As Tohma walked though the apartment, Taruto and Kisshu appeared in front of him.

"Yo," Kisshu said to him.

"Hey," replied Tohma, "So you ditch Deep Blue and decide to stop fighting yet?"

"Well, one out of two correct," said Taruto.

"Huh?"

Kisshu came up to him and started to extract Tohma's spirit from him. But, instead of the spirit in the shape of a crystal coming out, a person was pulled out of Tohma and fell to the floor. The person looked exactly like Tohma, except for their eyes. Tohma's eyes were a gentle black, while the other had blood red eyes and had a demonic presence about him.

"Thanks for helping me out there guys," said the red eyed Tohma, looking back at the real Tohma. "This is for keeping me bottled up for all these years," he said as he kicked Tohma in the chest. Tohma gave grunts of pain as his evil self kicked him repeatedly.

"Tohma, stop kicking…yourself," shouted Taruto uncertainly.

The red eyed Tohma looked at them after giving the real Tohma a final kick. In an instant, the red eyed Tohma was in front of them. "Don't ever call me that again," he sneered, "The name's Kuro."

"And what if we don't?" asked Kisshu with a smirk.

Kuro turned to him and punched Kisshu hard in the stomach. Kuro had punch hard enough to make Kisshu fall to the floor, clutching his stomach.

"Kisshu!" shouted Taruto bending down to check on Kisshu.

Kuro kicked Taruto in the face, sending Taruto flying into the opposite wall. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth as he slid down the wall, unconscious. Kuro, who seemed pleased with his worked, headed in the opposite direction from where Tohma had come, back to Tanya's house.

Back at Tanya's house, Tanya and Zakuro were talking happily with one another in Tanya's bed room. Tanya's parents were out on business trips, so they were home by themselves. As they talked about varies things, they heard the doorbell ring. They looked at each other.

"Tohma couldn't be back that fast," said Zakuro, confused.

"I wonder who it is then," said Tanya.

As they went and opened the door, they saw Kuro, though they thought it was Tohma, at the doorway.

"That was quick, did you sprint or something," laughed Tanya, "Were you unable to stay away from us for too long."

Kuro didn't respond.

Zakuro noticed something was wrong. "Tohma…" she said cautiously, "You ok?" She looked into Kuro eyes and immediately noticed a difference. "Tanya, get away from him!" she shouted.

"Huh?" Tanya was able to say until Kuro pushed her up against the wall, pinning her on her arm. "Tohma, what are you doing? That hurts!" she winced.

Zakuro ran at Kuro, bring out her whip, but was repelled a force that was shot out of Kuro's raised hand. Zakuro crashed into a table, knocking over the ornaments that were placed on them.

"Zakuro!" shouted Tanya. She turned her head to face Kuro. "What did you do?!"

Kuro brought his face close to Tanya's. "Good night," he whispered to her as he applied more and more pressure on her shoulder. He continued to apply pressure to her shoulder until the pain caused her to black out.

At the Café, Ichigo and the others were cleaning up the empty shop. Suddenly, the doors flew open revealing a panting Kisshu holding onto an unconscious Tohma and Taruto. Kisshu fell over as Ichigo ran over to support him.

"What happened?" She asked, as Kisshu placed Tohma and Taruto on the floor. "Are you ok?"

"What do you think?" snapped Mint.

"Kisshu, what happened," asked Lettuce in a soft voice.

"It's Tohma," Kisshu said though gritted teeth. They all looked at the unconscious Tohma. "No not him!" shouted Kisshu "Kuno!"

They all looked confused. "What about black?" asked Keiichiro, who walked into the room.

"No, not the color! His other self!" shouted Kisshu, pointing at Tohma.

"What are you talking about?" asked Ryou, who entered with Keiichiro.

Kisshu took a deep breath. "We were planning to use his spirit for our next Chimera Animal," Kisshu explained. "But when were tried to do so, we took out another self. There were to spirits inside of Tohma, a good and a bad. And I bet you can guess which one did this to us."

"Where is he now?" asked Ichigo. But Kisshu only shook his head.

"I have no clue."

"We have to find him," cried Pudding, cradling Taruto in her arms.

"We will," said Ichigo angrily, "Don't you worry about that."

"No, kitty, you can't!" shouted Kisshu, grabbing Ichigo's wrist as she made to get up. "He's too strong. You can't fight him."

"Well we've got to try," protested Ichigo, trying pull her wrist out of Kisshu's grip.

After a few moments of looking into one another's eyes, Kisshu finally let go of her hand.

"Don't worry," Ichigo said, bending down to Kisshu's eye level. "I'll be fine, I promise." And with that, she kissed him on the cheek, and left.

After a moment's hesitation, the others followed her. Kisshu put his hand gingerly on the spot Ichigo had kissed.

In Tanya's house, Zakuro began to stir. As she opened her eyes, she saw and unconscious Tanya, lying against the wall near the opened door. Zakuro got up and limped over to her.

"Tanya," she said softy, shaking her, "Tanya, wake up."

Tanya's eyes slowly began to open. Zakuro sighed in relief.

"You ok?" Zakuro asked.

"I think so," muttered Tanya as she got up, rubbing her shoulder. "What happened? Where's Tohma?"

"I don't think that was Tohma," said Zakuro, shaking her head.

"Then who was it?" asked Tanya.

"I don't know," replied Zakuro, "But who ever it was, we have to find him."

Tanya nodded in agreement and both of them raced out the door.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey people! So, this is Chapter 12 of my fic 'kay? Hope ou like it. Happy Thanksgiving. and no this chapter has nothing to do with Thanksgiving.

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Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 12

As Zakuro and Tanya reached the café, Ichigo, Pudding, Mint, and Lettuce were walking out of the front doors. They spotted each other and ran up to meet one another.

"There's a clone or something of Tohma and he hurt Kisshu, Taruto, and the real Tohma," Ichigo said quickly, once they were together.

"Yeah, we know about the clone," Zakuro said with a nod, "He attacked us at Tanya's house," she said, gesturing at Tanya.

"We have to go after him," said Pudding at once.

"No, you can't," Tanya said, "he's too strong, even if you are the Mew Mews."

The other girls looked at her incredulously.

"How did you know about-" Lettuce began quietly, but Tanya cut her off.

"Tohma told me the last night," explain Tanya, and on that thought, she turned to Zakuro, "His hand was all bloody too. What was that about?"

"Those guys that were in town found us last night too," Zakuro explained.

"Oh," Tanya said, understanding. Then shaking that piece of information off, "Anyways, you can't just go after Tohma's other self without thinking something through first. He managed to hurt Kisshu, Taruto, Tohma, Zakuro, and me. He's not going to be easy to fight."

"I think his name is Kuno," said Ichigo," Kisshu mentioned it."

"It wouldn't matter if his name was Shirley," said Tanya impatiently, "The point is, he took down one Mew, two aliens, and two normal people in a matter of minutes. He's not one to just go charging after without knowing more about him."

After a moment, they all agreed and headed back to the café. The moment they reached the door, it flung open.

"Oh, thank god you guys didn't go too far," Kisshu said, as they walked in. "You can't fight Kuno."

"Kisshu no, there's no other choose," came Tohma's voice.

They looked around to see Tohma and Taruto, both conscious and both sitting up right…well, Taruto was floating in the air with his legs crossed. They were all happy to see them alright. Pudding was so happy, she ran at Taruto and jumped on top of him, knocking him out of the air.

"There must be another way," Kisshu shouted at Tohma, completely disregarding Pudding and Taruto, who were now rolling on the ground.

"The only way Kuno can be stopped is if he's silenced for good," retorted Tohma.

"Yeah, but-" Tanya was about to speak when Kisshu shouted over her.

"But, if he's gone you'll disappear too,"

Everyone was silent now. Everyone was either looking at Kisshu, who continued to stare at Tohma, or Tohma, who was looking at the floor.

"There's no other way," Tohma said in forced calm.

"W-wait a minute," Zakuro was stuttering. "W-what do you mean by, 'If he's gone you'll disappear too?'"

"If Kuno dies, I die with him," said Tohma quietly. "He is the one keeping me alive. Back when the car accident happened, I wasn't going to pull though in the beginning. When I was near death, a spirit appeared and offered to save my life. My parents were frantic and wanted to save me in anyway possible so they took the offer. He merged with my body and my body instantly began to heal. The down side was that my spirit and soul were fused with his. Even though I was the host, he held on to my soul. If he were to die, I will die with him. Even if we're separated like this, my soul is still with him."

"So if you were to die, he dies too right?" asked Ichigo. "I mean if your souls are fused together then if you die, he would die too, right?"

"Ichigo, your not thinking that we kill Tohma to get rid of Kuno are you?" Zakuro cried out.

Ichigo shook her head frantically. "No, I was only asking if that would happen," Ichigo said quickly. She turned to Tohma "I never meant that we should-" Tohma put up a hand to silence her.

"It's ok, Ichigo, I understand what you're saying," said Tohma grimly. "Sadly though, that is not the case. My soul is in him, so if he dies, I die. But his soul isn't in me, so he couldn't care less if I die. There is no way to get rid of Kuno, without killing me in the process."

Zakuro tried to stifle a cry. Tohma got up and held her in a tight embrace.

"That can't be," she said, tears flowing down her face. "There has got to be another way."

Tohma shook his head. "I'm afraid there is no other choice," he said, hand on the back of her head, stroking her long purple hair. "We can't let him go free. He has the power to destroy the city, and he probably will too."

"But Tohma, we can't possibly defeat Kuno now," wailed Ichigo, "We can't fight Kuno knowing that it'll kill you too."

Tohma held out an arm and Ichigo walked over and started to cry into his chest too. Lettuce too had tears coming out of her eyes, but she was being held by Ryou. Even Mint looked devastated.

"I always thought that if you died, I'd die too," came a voice from the door. They all spun around and saw Kuno standing in the doorway. "Well, now I don't have to worry about kicking your sorry ass down to hell," he said with a grin.

Tohma separated himself from Ichigo and Zakuro and lunged at Kuno. Tohma knocked Kuno hard enough that they fell into the pavement outside of the café. Kuno quickly knocked Tohma off with a burst of energy that was emitted from his body. One by one the Mew Mews transformed and attempted to at least subdue Kuno, but nothing worked. Kuno just broke though Pudding's attack, caught Mint's arrows with his bare hands, it looked like he barely even felt Lettuce's attack, and he broke out of Zakuro's whip with ease. Tohma grabbed Kuno from behind and pinned Kuno's arms to his sides. Kuno tried to escape, but he found that he couldn't. A faint golden glow was coming from Tohma.

"Since when did you have this kind of power?" shouted Kuno, still trying to brake free.

"It looks like when you were inside of me for all these years, your energy flowed into my body. So all those years weren't a waste after all," Tohma said with a smile. "Ichigo, finish him now!"

"But-" Ichigo hesitated.

"Ichigo, don't worry about me," shouted Tohma, as he felt his grip slipping. Kuno was breaking free from Tohma's, grip. "Hurry up and finish him off!"

After another moment's hesitation, she nodded. "Strawberry bell," she called out. Her heart-shaped weapon appeared and she took it in her hands. She held it up with shaking hands and aimed it at the struggling pair. "Ribbon Strawberry Surprise," she shouted, closing her eyes, not wanting to see what happened.

Kuno screamed as he was hit by the attack. As his body disappeared, two spirit crystals fell onto the ground and Tohma collapsed to the floor. Keiichiro ran over to Tohma and placed his head onto Tohma's chest, checking for a heartbeat. As the others walked over to him, he got up, eyes closed and shaking his head. Zakuro broke into heavy sobs as she knelt down next to Tohma, face in her hands. Kisshu walked over and picked up one the fallen spirit crystal. It was Kuno's alright, blood red and still emitting a powerful aura. Kisshu cursed as he crushed the crystal to dust in his hands. The second one was still on the floor, dark purple and emitting no amount of life aura. Keiichiro picked it up and placed it in Zakuro's hands. She looked of the crystal for a few seconds, then held it to her chest as she cried into Tohma's lifeless body.

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-Sniff- Just makes you wanna cry doesn't it. That's just so sad. 


	13. Chapter 13

Gah, the site had trouble uploading this chapter. So sorry for any unwanted suspense that had formed. I had planned to update earlier since I had so much time over Thanksgiving, but...well... Enough of that, to the next chapter.

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Chapter 13

Keiichiro had helped Zakuro carry Tohma's body back to his apartment upon Zakuro's request. Zakuro opened the apartment door and Keiichiro set Tohma's body on the bed. Zakuro knelt down beside Tohma. Tanya, who had also gone to the apartment with them, knelt down too, putting her arms around Zakuro shoulders. Tanya still had tears falling from her face, but Zakuro wasn't crying anymore. Keiichiro had never seen anyone who looked more defeated than Zakuro looked now. It hurt Keiichiro to see her like this.

"Zakuro," Keiichiro spoke up, "If there's anything that I can do for you…" his voice trialed off.

Zakuro shook her head. "I caused you enough trouble already," she said, determined to keep her voice stead.

"Well, I'll get going then," said Keiichiro, heading for the door. "But if you need anything call, ok?"

Zakuro stood up and went to give him a hug. "Thanks for everything," she said in a quiet voice.

Keiichiro was surprised at her actions but smiled. "Don't mention it," he said, toying with her wolf ears. Zakuro smiled. It was the first smile that Keiichiro had seen from her all day. "Take care," he said as he left.

When Keiichiro left, Tanya got up too. The tears had stopped falling but her eyes were still very red. "I think I should get going too," she said in the same soft voice as Zakuro.

"You sure you don't want to stay?" asked Zakuro.

Tanya shook her head. "I don't think I could," she said, glancing at Tohma.

Zakuro gave an understanding nod and Tanya moved to the door.

"I'm going to head home," Tanya said and, pointing at Zakuro's right hand, said, "And I think you should ease up on that."

Zakuro looked down at her clenched hands and realized something there was hurting her. It was Tohma's lifeless spirit crystal, which she had been clutching for the last half-hour. When she opened her hand, there was an imprint of the crystal on her palm. Zakuro stood there for a moment and then moved next to Tohma again. When she looked into Tohma's lifeless face again, she burst into renewed tears.

The next morning, Zakuro woke up and lifted herself up off of Tohma's chest. She suddenly realized that her back seemed a little lighter than before. She looked back to find herself tailless. She felt the top of her head and found no trace of her wolf ears. She had finally returned to normal.

Zakuro decided that school would be a good way to take her mind off of Tohma, but instead, she found her mind stuck on Tohma even more. Even though she was regarded as one of the more brilliant students of the class, she had failed to answer three questions that the teacher had asked her.

During lunch, her teacher approached her. "Are you okay?" she asked Zakuro.

Zakuro looked up at her teacher, once again having her mind wander off to Tohma again. Zakuro lied and nodded her head.

"Are you sure?" her teacher asked, "You don't look too well. Do you want to go to the nurse?" Zakuro shook her head. "Alright," her teacher said, and walked away.

Zakuro sighed and looked out the window again. Then, not too long after, a boy walked up to her.

"So, where's Tohma, huh?" he asked. Zakuro ignored him. "Ah, not talking about him huh?" the boy said, smiling slightly, "Did he do something to you?" Zakuro continued to ignore him, but her anger was slowly rising. "You know, if guy like that had done something to you, it's best if they were just be forgotten. If I was your boyfriend however, I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that?" Zakuro saw where this was going, but that didn't help her become less angry. On the contrary, she was getting angrier by every word the guy said. "If you go out with me, I'll promise that I'll make you forget about whatever Tohma has done to you." At this Zakuro stood up and looked at the boy. "So is that a yes?" the boy asked, smiling widely now.

Zakuro looked at him for a good few seconds as he continued to smile. Then, with all the strength she could muster, she slapped him across the face. After that she stormed from the school.

She returned to the apartment and unlocked the door. She walked up to where Tohma was lying and she knelt down next to him.

"I really wish you were here right now," she said to him, tucking his now long hair behind his ear. "You should hear the other students, one of them had nerve to try and ask me out today. Can you believe that?"

She had continued to talk to Tohma as if he were sitting there and listening to her. Not too long afterwards she found herself becoming sleeping and fell asleep on Tohma's chest again.

She slept till it was about time that school had ended. At first she wondered what had caused her to wake. She started to hear a rhythmic beating coming from an unknown source.

'That sounds nice,' Zakuro thought to herself, 'it makes me kinda sleepy.'

She snuggled up against Tohma's warm body, getting comfortable.

'Wait a minute…' she thought suddenly, 'why is his body suddenly warm again?'

She lifted her head up and looked at Tohma's face. It wasn't dead pale anymore. The color started returning to his face and his chest was slowly rising up and down. Zakuro clapped her hands to her mouth as tears started to form in her eyes. She felt her breast pocket become slightly warm and she reached in and took out Tohma's spirit crystal, which she was carrying around. It wasn't dark and lifeless as before. It was emitting a soft purple light and felt slightly warm.

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I need to know, is this moving too quickly? Should I prolong his return or is the next chapter ok? I fell like this is rushing in everything. Have you guys noticed that these past, what, seven chapters are in a time frame of two days?! 


	14. Chapter 14

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 14

Even though Tohma's heart was beating, his soul had not returned. After every passing day, Zakuro hoped that the crystal that she kept would one day glow and give off the same warmth that it used to. But weeks had gone by and yet the crystal one had a fraction of what it used to have. Zakuro had thought to tell the other's that Tohma was indeed alive, but never did, for fear that he will never fully awake. One afternoon, Zakuro was waking though the city after school, heading to the apartment, when she was stopped by a peculiar woman. An old lady, sitting at a table holding a crystal ball, her hands on the table top, her fingers interlocked.

'Oh great,' Zakuro thought, 'What does she want with me?' Zakuro had never trusted those lying fortune tellers.

"You got a second?" the lady asked.

Zakuro didn't fell much like arguing so she approached her.

"You have something in your possession that has some spiritual energy don't you?" the lady asked.

Zakuro looked at the strange lady. "What are you talking about?" Zakuro asked, completely lost.

The lady gave a slight chuckle. "You probably think that I'm some phony fortune teller trying hoax people out of their money, don't you?" she asked.

Zakuro said nothing, and the lady chuckled again.

"You have a spirit following you, do you know that?" she said.

"Eh?"

"A boy, about your age, slightly taller maybe, with dark eyes and… I do think you know the rest."

"Uh…I don't think I'm following."

The lady chuckled once more. "He didn't think that you would either," she said, "Well, if you don't understand what that means that you may go."

"Huh?" Zakuro was thoroughly confused, but she decided to leave.

"Sorry I couldn't help you," the lady said looking up into what appeared to be thin air.

"Eh don't worry about it," said a voice as a spirit appeared, "To think that you, Tanya, actually had a sixth sense.

The old lady pulled off a wig to reveal long blue hair. "That's nothing to feel happy about," said Tanya moodily, "Spirits popping up randomly. It can scare you sometimes."

"Now the only thing that's needed to be worried about is how we can get them to pass on the spirit crystal without them knowing," said Tohma, floating down next to Tanya.

"I still don't see why we can't tell them," Tanya said, propping her feet upon the table.

"Look, if they know that, they'll be too hasty an try to revive me as quick as possible," explained Tohma, "In order for the crystal to fully gain back all of the energy it needs to accept my soul back requires a lot of life force. Giving too much at once will kill you. At least when it's with Zakuro like that it does feed the crystal energy but it's a slow process so it doesn't take it all at once. Certain amount of their life force is expendable and will return eventually, do to the alterations in their DNA, but that amount is very small. Don't ask me to go into detail but you do get the general gist of it all. If they were to find out that the crystal takes in life force, the girls may become reckless in trying to revive me."

"I see…" Tanya said, her finger massaging her temple, trying to take it all in.

"See, it's already too much for you," laughed Tohma.

"Shush," Tanya commanded him, only to make him laugh more.

"Well in any case, with the rate that the energy transfer is going, I won't be back for another month or so," said Tohma, hands in his pockets.

Tanya sighed. "If only there was a way to tell them and not make them recklessly expending their life force," she said, "Zakuro is already at her limit of excess life force so the process of the absorption is being halted. If only we could get her to pass the crystal to the others."

"That would never happen," Tohma scoffed and Tanya looked up at him. "You never realize how much you love something or someone until they're gone."

"Isn't that the truth," Tanya said. She swung her legs off the table. "Well time for me to get to work."

"Huh?" Tohma looked at her in confusion.

"Keiichiro said I could start working at Café Mew Mew," said Tanya, "I thought that it'd be nice to work with you when you get back."

"Is that the truth?" said Tohma, bring his hand to his chin, "Hm… could it have anything to do with being close Shirogane could it?"

Tanya blushed. "Shut it," she muttered.

"Too bad," Tohma laughed, "He's taken."

"What?! That sucks!" exclaimed Tanya, stamping her foot.

Zakuro had entered the apartment to drop off her school things, before going to the café for work. She changed out of her school clothing and into more comfortable clothing and looked down at Tohma's now breathing body.

'Come on, Tohma. Come back to us,' Zakuro thought. Her grip tightened around the crystal in her hand. 'Come back to me.'

* * *

Ah...isn't that just romantic, Zakuro really does like him doesn't she. Hm, that never occured to me. How could I have missed that! Thanks all for reading, and please continue to and review! 


	15. Chapter 15

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 15

At the café, nothing strange happened, unless you count Tanya continuously talking to thin air strange. Zakuro decided to go back to the apartment immediately after work, instead of lingering around with the other girls. As her mind started to wander, she thought back to what the old lady said to her, earlier that day. The more she thought about it, the more she got the feeling that she was being followed. Several times, she caught herself whipping around to see if anyone was really tailing her. She saw no one every time. She quickly entered the apartment, bolted the door, closed the blinds, and hid herself under the blankets, next to Tohma's body. She was shivering, not because she was cold, but out of fear. She knew that someone was following her, but every time she turned around, there was no one there. There was no where a person could hide so there really mustn't have been someone there. Nevertheless…

Suddenly, Zakuro heard a knock at the door, which made her jump so badly, her ears and tail pooped out, which, until now, was thought to be only capable of Ichigo. Zakuro quickly ran over and opened the door. There stood Tanya and the others.

"Zakuro, what's up?" said Tanya cheerfully, then saw the protruding ears, "Um, what's with the…" she gestured at Zakuro's wolf ears.

"You ask him," Zakuro said, pointing at Ryou.

"What?" asked Ryou innocently, "It's not like I ever said that Ichigo isn't the only one whose ears and tail pops out. You were always so calm, so you're ears and tail just never came out. But you seem to be pretty jumpy today. Is something wrong?"

"I don't know," Zakuro said, inviting them inside. "It just seemed like I've been being followed ever since work."

"Well that was when he went with you," Tanya mumbled.

"What was that?" asked Zakuro.

"Oops, did I say that out loud?" asked Tanya, sheepishly.

Unseen by the rest of them, Tohma smacked his hand to his forehead.

"Well, I guess it's time to tell you," Tanya said, "Do any of you believe in ghosts?"

They shook their heads.

"Well it's about time you did," said Tanya, walking over to Tohma's body and nudging it with her toe, "Cause he's in the room right now."

"What?!" they all exclaimed. "Where?" asked Zakuro.

Tanya pointed at the space right next to her. Zakuro moved forward and lifted her hands as if she were going to cup his face in her hands. But since she couldn't see exactly where Tohma was, she promptly put her hands through Tohma's head. Tanya giggled and adjusted Zakuro's hands to be place around Tohma's face.

"So he really is there?" asked Lettuce, moving next to Zakuro.

Tanya nodded.

"So was he the one that was following Zakuro?" asked Ichigo.

"Stupid stalker," laughed Zakuro.

"So now that we understand who was following Zakuro," said Ryou, "There's nothing left to do now except wait till Tohma comes back to us right? So I can leave right?"

"I see that you still worry about us and our safety so much," said Tohma sarcastically.

Tanya laughed.

"What did he say this time?" asked Ryou.

"Thanks for caring," joked Tanya.

"You're welcome," said Ryou as he left and Keiichiro waved out too.

"So, do you know a way for him to come back?" asked Pudding, hopping onto a table.

"Well…" Tanya hesitated, thinking about what Tohma said about them becoming too reckless.

"You know don't you? Please tell us," Zakuro pleaded.

"Tanya please," said Ichigo.

"Ok, but promise you won't go overboard trying to bring him back," said Tanya.

They all nodded and Tanya told them what they needed to do as they sat around the table that Pudding was sitting on moments before.

"So all we need to do transfer power into the crystal?" asked Zakuro, sliding the crystal to the center of the table.

"Pretty much," nodded Tanya.

"Ok, let's get to it then," said Ichigo, removing her pendent.

"Stop right there," said Tanya quickly. "The crystal will absorb your powers by itself. If you give too much at once it is for certain that you will die."

"So, does that mean close proximity or…" Lettuce asked.

Tanya nodded. "Pretty much."

"So does that mean I need to roll out the guest beds?" laughed Zakuro.

"Would it be too much trouble?" asked Ichigo.

"It's Tohma's place, ask him," said Tanya.

"Can we?" asked Ichigo, looking in the complete opposite direction.

"He said it's ok," said Tanya before Tohma had even shown any sign of answering, trying not to laugh.

Over night, as the girls slept, the crystal started to give off a stronger glow than before as it now had five sources of energy sources rather than just one.

The next morning they were all still fast asleep, all crowded around Tohma. He slowly opened his eyes.

"I guess it's finally nice to be in my body again," he murmered, looking down to see the other girls using him as a pillow of sorts. "But this, I can pretty much live without." He blinked in the harsh sun light, "I wanna go back to sleep," he wined as he closed his eyes again.

The girls woke up moments later to find the crystal missing, as it had already reentered Tohma.

"Where did it go?" Zakuro was panicking.

"It could have just disappear into thin air could it?" asked Ichigo, franticly searching the room.

"I can't believe it," said Zakuro, crestfallen, "Now Tohma won't ever be able to come back." She flopped down onto Tohma's chest, who woke up with a start.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't do that," mumbled Tohma.

"Tohma!" Zakuro squealed her tail and ears popping out again. "When did you…"

"Since this morning, now I wanna sleep, being dead doesn't help your sleep you know," Tohma said, turning over to his side.

"Tohma, stay awake, we haven't seen you in more than a week," wined Zakuro.

"Come on, we were worried about you," said Ichigo, latching herself around Tohma's neck.

"Ok ok," said Tohma, getting up, "Sheesh, can't even be gone for more than a week without you guys acting this way."

"Well we did think you were gone for good you know," said Lettuce, too showing happiness that Tohma was alive again.

"Fine, fine," mumbled Tohma, attempting to pry Ichigo's arms off of his neck.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Ichigo cried out in apology, realizing that she was hurting him.

Just as Ichigo let Tohma go, Zakuro plowed into him, hugging the life out of him.

* * *

Well that's about it for now, Tohma's back and new adventures await them. 


	16. Chapter 16

Ok, ok, I know the last chapter sucked, don't remind me. On second thought, do remind me. If there's something that was poorly written or the whole chapter just stunk, please tell me. It'll help make me not make the same mistake twice. I want good and bad comments and reviews. All of them. I want to know exactly what you think. And once again, I know the last chapter stunk, all you need to know is Tohma's alive, end of story...well not really.

* * *

Chapter 16

Summer…A time where students get a chance to get away from school. The beach becomes more inviting than any other time of year. But all that has to wait until the final bell rung, signaling the end of the last day of school. Everyone was on tenterhooks waiting for the bell. Even the teachers were anxious to get out of school. Finally, as the bell rung, everyone darted out the classroom and into the school yard, chatting happily with friends and discussing plans for the summer. Zakuro and Tohma were headed off to the school Ichigo, Mint, and Lettuce all attend, as they all had planned to meet there before going back to Zakuro's house. A month ago, Zakuro had moved back into her house, after her parents had left for an extended trip.

When they got to the school, Tohma and Zakuro saw Ichigo and Lettuce walking toward the school gate and themselves.

"Where's Mint?" asked Zakuro as Ichigo and Lettuce got close enough to hear her.

"Some ballet thing all the way in Europe or something like that," shrugged Ichigo.

"And Pudding is visiting her family in China, so she won't be going with us to the beach either," Lettuce added.

"Aw, that's too bad then," sighed Tohma, "I'm sure they would have liked to go to the beach with us. Tanya isn't going to make it too."

"Yeah well, we won't be going either if we just stand here, now will we?" said Zakuro, impatiently. "I don't want to hit traffic on the way there, so come on." She was pulling on Tohma's arm, trying to make him walk.

"All right, all right, stop pulling," laughed Tohma, as the rest of them started to walk off in the direction of Zakuro's house.

They had entered the house to find five or six big luggage bags sitting near the front door.

"I'll get these in the car then?" asked Tohma, moving towards the bags.

"I'll help," said Lettuce quickly, running over to the bags and quickly picking one up.

They were packed in a few minutes and driving off to the café to pick up Keiichiro and Ryou.

They were off as soon as they meet up with Ryou and Keiichiro. Lettuce insisted on riding in Ryou's car.

It took over an hour for them to reach the beach but they made it. The guys checked into the hotel that they were to stay at and moved all the luggage in, while the girls were laying on the deck, basking in the sun. As soon as the moving was done and living quarters were decided, they all went to the boardwalk to find a restaurant to eat at.

They entered a seaside restaurant as a waitress approached them.

"A table for…six?" the waitress counted. They nodded. "Please wait on moment."

As they waited, they heard a crash of plates and they turned around.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," repeated the waitress who was bending over to pick up the plates.

Tohma walked over to help pick up the fallen plates.

"Here you go," he said, handing her the fallen plates.

"Than-" she froze at the site of Tohma with Zakuro clinging onto his shoulder. She was quite a pretty girl of about sixteen from the looks of her. After a few seconds of staring, she ran off into the kitchens.

"Do you know her?" asked Zakuro.

"Yeah, I do," muttered Tohma, looking very distressed.

"Who was that?" asked Keiichiro.

"Eirika, she lived in California as well. We went to the same school together and everything too," said Tohma with a heavy sigh. "I guess you can piece together the rest.

"Boyfriend/Girlfriend relationship," said Ryou.

Tohma nodded sadly. "She was really depressed when I had to move back here. She took it as being dumped."

"No chance for a long distance relationship?" asked Ichigo.

"She stopped talking to me after I told her I was leaving," said Tohma. "I never thought I'd see her here."

"Um…" the first waitress had returned. "Your table's ready."

"Thanks," said Keiichiro and they walked over to their table.

Moments later, Eirika had arrived at their table.

"How may I help you?" she asked cheerfully, without so much as glancing at Tohma.

They had all placed their orders, but when it came to Tohma, she had actually ignored his order. Zakuro thought it was going too far at this point.

"What is the matter with you?!" she had shouted at Eirika.

"What? Nothing's the matter," said Eirika, innocently.

Tohma thought this also was getting out of hand. He got up and pulled Eirika into the back of the restaurant. Zakuro and the other's watched as Tohma and Eirika talked. They saw tears starting to fall onto Eirika's cheeks. Tohma had gentle wiped them away, talking softly to her. Then, suddenly, he pulled her into a tight embrace. Zakuro stiffened at this. And, to make it seem worse, Tohma gave Eirika a small kiss on the cheek. Zakuro stormed off out of the restaurant.

Meanwhile, Tohma and Eirika were still talking, unaware of Zakuro's departure.

"You know I still love you, but, well…"

"There's someone else," Eirika nodded, understandingly.

"I'm sorry."

"May I ask?"

"Huh?"

"Who it is?"

Tohma stayed silent for a minute.

"I'm guessing you haven't even told her?" Eirika asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tohma grinned in a guilty fashion. Hand scratching the back of his head.

"You're so pathetic you know that," Eirika said, stamping her foot lightly. "You always hold this cool front up, but when it comes down to the end, you're a big chicken."

"I know, I know," muttered Tohma, leaning against the wall, "But until recently she thought I was dead. You know, the accident and all."

Eirika nodded.

"Before that, we were really close friends. I don't want her to feel weird by having her childhood friend saying 'I love, would you go out with me?'" He said the last part very fast.

Eirika looked at him pitifully. "How do you treat her now?"

"Occasionally getting her gifts, always there beside her, giving her a hand when needed." Tohma listed.

"And if she hasn't caught on by now, then what the heck is she thinking." Eirika mumbled.

"Huh?"

"That's exactly how we started to go out," Eirika pointed out, "You, always getting small gifts for me, helping me out, every little thing that you thought would make me happy. Sound familiar?" She was waving her arms slightly for emphasis.

Tohma said nothing, but was staring down at his shoes.

Eirika sighed. "Look, just go and tell her," she said, placing a hand on his back. "It will defiantly make you feel better."

"But-" Tohma couldn't think of what to say. Then he finally gave in. "But if it doesn't work out-"

"It will. But if you screw up, I'm never speaking to you again, are we clear?" Eirika said, turning her back to him, arms crossed.

There was a few seconds silence and Eirika peered over her shoulder to look at Tohma.

Tohma sighed, "Fine."

Eirika turned around to face him and brought him into a hug. "I'm hoping for the best for you," a single tear falling from her eyes.

"Thanks, that means a lot to me," said Tohma, hugging her back.


	17. Chapter 17

Careful people. This chapter has some, uh...sexual contents in it. So if you aren't a fan of those kind of things, do not read...well, the end of this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 17

Zakuro was sitting on the edge of a cliff watching the waves crashing down below her. All of a sudden, a hand fell upon her shoulder and an arm around her waist, which was a good thing cause she lurched forward in shock and surprise, ears and tail appearing as well.

"Who…?" she said quickly.

"I'll give you three guesses and two of them don't count," said a voice behind her as a finger stroked her ear.

"Tohma…" she said softly.

"Ding ding ding, give the girl a prize," muttered Tohma from behind her.

"How did you find me here?" asked Zakuro, leaning against Tohma's chest.

"We've been living together for the past yearish, and who knows what memories I may still contain, but I think I know the places you like to go to think about things," answered Tohma, setting her securely between his legs.

"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" asked Zakuro coolly.

"Uh…and here I thought I was," said Tohma, tightening his grip around Zakuro.

"I…w-what?" She was extremely taken aback by what he had said.

"Well, actually, I've always wanted to tell you but, well, I guess I was too nervous," started Tohma, "Well, I, I…I…"

Tohma was stuttering too much to get the words out but Zakuro defiantly got the message. Without waiting for the rest of the sentence, she pulled him into a kiss. They broke apart rather quickly.

"You know I've always preferred the direct approach," laughed Tohma as he brought her into a more passionate kiss.

"Can you say it now?" asked Zakuro when they had broke apart once again.

"Of course," he said smiling down at her and giving her a quick kiss on the check. "I love you."

"Now was that so hard, love?" asked Zakuro.

"Like you were any better," argued Tohma, "you being jealous and everything."

"I wasn't jealous," said Zakuro defensively.

"Uh huh, sure," said Tohma smiling.

They had both left the restaurant and returned to the hotel before any of the others. They were both sitting on the couch, Zakuro upon Tohma's lap, dozing slightly. Tohma rubbed his hand over her bare stomach, causing her to moan slightly with lust.

"Ah, geez, get a private room will yah," came Ryou's voice from the door.

Zakuro quickly jumped off of Tohma, blushing heavily.

"It was clear until you can here," said Tohma evenly, as Ichigo, Lettuce, and Keiichiro entered the room.

Ichigo and Lettuce both giggled.

They were talking all through the night about various things. The guys had gone to sleep first and left the girls to continue talking. It was nearly one in the morning when they finally went off to bed. Sleepily, Zakuro entered a room and walked to the bed. She crawled into the bed to find someone already in it. She started and looked down on the bed. It was Tohma. She figured that she must have went into the wrong room, due to her doziness. She quickly tried to get off the bed without waking him up. But before she got off the bed an arm encircled her waist.

"Dun go," Tohma mumbled in a sleepy voice.

"Sorry, I kinda got the wrong room," apologized Zakuro.

"Ain't that obvious?" mumbled Tohma. "Now are you going to leave or are you going to lie down?"

"Can I? I really don't want to sleep alone at the moment."

Tohma moved over slightly.

"Thanks love," Zakuro smiled seductively.

"And your supposed to be the mature one of the group?"

"I never claimed it." She laid down next to him, her head resting on his arm.

"So, before we were interrupted by Ryou, where were we?"

Tohma lifted her purple night gown slightly and press his hand on her bare navel. She gave a yelp at the coldness of his hands, ear and tail reappearing once again. Tohma shifted he pajama pants to allow the tail through.

"There, isn't that a little more comfortable?" said Tohma

"Oh, I thought you were going to…" Zakuro was blushing furiously.

"Nah… not yet." He positioned himself above her and lick her inner ear.

Zakuro moaned loudly as Tohma felt her pressing her legs together tightly.

"Oh, it is defiantly going to be a long night," Tohma chuckled, his hand entered her gown.

Zakuro whimpered nervously. "Come on, Tohma, stop it"

Tohma stopped. He removed his hand caressed Zakuro's face with it. "If you really want to stop, I won't go any further. If you want these hands to stop, it's okay to run away."

Zakuro's blush deepened as a full minute went by. She averted her eyes. "…Don't stop…"

Tohma lowered himself and kissed Zakuro's neck, causing her body to stiffen. He slipped her pajamas pants off her. He reached down and probed her entrance and started to unbutton her gown.

"Yah! Ah…Tohma…ya…not there…" She was clutching tightly at Tohma's shoulders.

"What? Do you think I'm just playing?" questioned Tohma, undoing his pants.

"H-huh?"


	18. Chapter 18

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 18

The next time Zakuro woke up, it was already morning. But what really woke her up was something smooth and damp running across her lips.

She giggled. "Tohm-" before she could finish saying anything, there was a bright flash of light and something heavy feel onto the bed. She sat up in time to she Ichigo running out of the room, shouting.

"Shirogane if you ever make me turn into a cat again, I will kill you!"

Zakuro laughed and stretched out her awaking limbs. It wasn't until she looked around did she realized she wasn't in Tohma's room like she thought, but her own hotel room. But she could have sworn she had fallen asleep in Tohma's room, after they… but now that she thought about it, Zakuro wasn't even sure that they had done it at all, I mean she was half asleep and everything, it could have been a dream for all she knew. At that moment Tohma poked his head into the room.

"Hey you're up," he said walking in, "Hope we didn't wake you."

Zakuro shook her head and sat up.

"You ok?" Tohma asked, sitting down on her bed.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well last night, you passed out in the middle of everything."

Zakuro felt that that had confirmed it. "Well it was my first time and everything," she huffed.

Then, Keiichiro knocked on the open door. "Tohma, could I get a hand?" he asked.

Tohma nodded hand headed towards the door, paused at the desk next to the door and picked up a hair brush. He tossed it to her.

"Fix your fur, why don't you," he said, walking through the door. Before he left completely, he turned back, gave her a questioning stare, and headed down the hall.

Zakuro wondered what Tohma meant until she felt something furry brush against her back. She looked around to see a brown tail with very messy fur sticking out of her. Zakuro finally was able to understand why Ichigo was always complaining about brushing her tail when ever she slept with it sticking out. It took her a good ten minutes to get the fur to flatten. She went next door into the room that Keiichiro's room, he and Ryou shared a room. Tohma was sitting next to Ichigo on Ryou's bed and Keiichiro and Lettuce were on Keiichiro's own bed, while Ryou was leaning back on a chair, propped up on it's back two legs. She sat down on Ryou's bed, next to Tohma as they were deciding where to eat.

"Hey, Syaoran," said Tohma, putting an arm around Zakuro's waist.

"Huh?" asked Ryou, cocking an eyebrow.

"Little wolf…" Tohma explained pointing at Zakuro's ears.

"They're still not down yet?" asked an exasperated Zakuro, clapping her hands to her head, feeling for the ears.

They all shook their heads.

Zakuro sighed. Then, turning to Tohma asked, in what she thought was a whisper, "About last night…um… was I…you know… with you?" Her face went red when she said this.

"Could you be more specific?" asked Tohma blankly.

"I was in your room last night wasn't I?" Zakuro asked.

"Would you two at least keep it PG over there," said Ryou, looking over at them.

Zakuro cursed herself for being louder than she had wanted, causing Ryou to over hear her. Zakuro couldn't think of what to say to this comment, but Tohma came to her rescue.

"Uh huh, lets put you in an empty room with Ichigo or Lettuce alone and see how long it stays PG in there," he said.

Ichigo and Lettuce both went red at this and shouted, "Tohma!!!"

They had chosen to eat at a nearby restaurant and decided to head off to the beach for some relaxation. They meet Eirika along the way there and invited her to go along with them. They arrived at the beach, and the girls raced onto the sand leaving the boys to carry all the beach equipment. By the time they had set up the beach chairs, towels, and beach umbrella, the girls were already in the water splashing one another, except for Zakuro, who was being held up by a swarm of fans. By the time she escaped from them, Tohma and Keiichiro were lounging in the beach chairs and Ryou on a towel under the beach umbrella.

"Tohma! That's my chair," whined Zakuro pouting.

Keiichiro and Ryou both laughed at the expression on Zakuro's face.

"So? You weren't here," said Tohma matter-of-factly, removing the sunglasses he had on.

"Tohma, get off it," Zakuro continued to whine, as she knelt down to attempt to push him off.

Finally, she managed to push him over the edge, causing him to fall into the sand.

"Oh, you did not just do that," said Tohma, menacingly from the ground, as Keiichiro and Ryou continued to laugh.

"And if I did?" asked Zakuro from on top of the beach chair.

Tohma growled at her and tried to snatch at her. Zakuro yelped and pelted towards the water as Tohma gave chase, shirt flying off. Zakuro ran into the waters and started to swim away, with Tohma right behind her. Zakuro came to a stop at a cave along the shore of the ocean, trying to catch her breath. She turned around to see that Tohma was no where to be found.

"Tohma? Where'd you go?" she asked the empty space in front of her.

Suddenly, Tohma burst through the water in front of her, making her scream.

"That's what you get for pushing me off the chair," laughed Tohma.

"That wasn't funny!" said Zakuro, still panting.

"Yeah that was," replied Tohma.

Zakuro frowned at him.

"Ah, you look so cute like that," said Tohma, brushing his lips on hers, and pulled himself out of the water.

"Where are you going?" Zakuro asked, getting out after him.

"Check this cave out," Tohma said, walking up to the mouth of the cave.

"By yourself?"

Tohma looked back at her. "What? You're not coming?"

"Yes….no…I don't know, I looks kinda creepy inside." Zakuro came up and latched herself onto Tohma's arm. "Who knows what could be in there."

"Let's find out then," Tohma said walking into the cave, Zakuro right next to him, looking nervously around the cave.

They walked for couple minutes and found nothing. But when they rounded a corner, however, they were met with a bright blue light. There was a stalagmite with a flatten top. And on that stalagmite was a large, round, blue stone that was giving off the blue light.

"It's a Mew Aqua drop!" Zakuro cried out in surprise.

"But what's it doing here?" wondered Tohma.

"Who cares, let's take it!" Zakuro said rushing forward.

"Wait, Zakuro, I don't think that that's a great idea," Tohma said, but, too late. Zakuro had reached out and grabbed the stone.

There was a flash of light and Zakuro was covered in a purple light. Slowly, the purple light moved from every part of Zakuro's body, towards the hand that was on the stone.

"Zakuro! Let go of it!" shouted Tohma.

"I can't!" cried Zakuro, struggling to try and free her hand from the blue stone, which seemed to be glued to the stalagmite. "It would let go!"

Tohma ran up and pulled on Zakuro's arm, but it wouldn't budge.

Tohma placed a hand on the stone to try and push the stone away from Zakuro, but the moment Tohma touched the stone, everything seemed to get worse. The purple light that was exiting Zakuro seemed to be entering Tohma. He tried to pull his hand away from the stone but nothing he did worked. Suddenly, there was an even brighter flash of light, and both of them were thrown back. Tohma was thrown behind a larger boulder and Zakuro was tossed to the other side of the cavern. Just then, Kisshu and Taruto appeared.

"You were right Kisshu, there was a trap there," said Taruto, bounding forward and taking the Mew Aqua.

"See, am I ever wrong?" said Kisshu proudly.

"Actually…"

"Can it twerp," Kisshu said, whacking Taruto on the head, and the two of them disappeared.

As they left, Zakuro was getting to her feet. She was rubbing the side of her head and walked over to the place that she saw Tohma land.

"Tohma?" she said, peering around in the sudden darkness due to the disappearance of the glowing Mew Aqua. "Tohma, are you ok?"

She turn around to look behind the large boulder, expecting to see Tohma lying there, but what she saw wasn't even human. A large gray wolf was lying there, unconscious.


	19. Chapter 19

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 19

"T-Tohma…Is that you?"

Zakuro gently shook the wolf. It sprung up in shock.

"Tohma…is that you?" Zakuro repeated.

The wolf growled at her, and by then, she realized that it wasn't him at all. She started to back up slowly.

"Easy…easy," she said tentatively.

She slowly backed up and the wolf advanced. As Zakuro backed up, she slipped on a rock on fell.

"Ow…" Zakuro moaned, clutching her ankle.

That they site of her pain, the wolf halted. There was a slight change in it's eyes too, a venomous yellow, to a gentle black.

"You ok?" the wolf said, not growled, not howled, but said.

Zakuro blinked in surprise. "You, you can talk?!"

"Huh? Of course I can talk wouldn't I…what the…" said the wolf, looking itself over. "Zakuro…what the hell is going on?"

"I was hoping you would know," said Zakuro.

"Sorry to disappoint you," the wolf said grimly, sit down on the rocky ground.

"So…now what?" asked Zakuro.

"First of all we need to get out of here," said the wolf, getting to its feet. "Get on."

"What? Why?"

"Well you definitely can't walk with your ankle like that," said the wolf, nudging her ankle. She winced. "See?"

"But I'm much too heavy."

"No you're not, now get on."

Zakuro sighed. "Fine…but if you get tired I'm getting off."

The wolf nodded and Zakuro mounted herself onto the wolf's back. The wolf trotted off toward the entrance. When the reached the entrance, Zakuro motioned the wolf to stop.

"Huh?" the wolf looked back at her.

"You are not going out like that," she pointed.

"Why not?" the wolf asked.

Zakuro raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Zakuro waved over at Keiichiro, who saw her and headed over to them.

"Hey Zakuro, what's… uhhhh!" Keiichiro yelled.

Zakuro and the wolf both jumped.

"What did you do that for?" yelped the wolf.

"Zakuro, get off of that thing!" yelled Keiichiro.

"Uh, hello, she hurt her ankle so she can't walk, kinda why I'm carrying her," the wolf ignored being called a thing.

"Start growling at me, sheesh!" snapped Keiichiro.

"Growling? What are you…? He speaking perfect Japanese," said Zakuro.

"Unless Japanese has changed into a new form of barking and growling or something… Are you saying you under stand him?"

"Yeah, I…can… and if you can't, why can I?" asked Zakuro.

"It must be because of your wolf genes within you. So you can actually understand him?" asked Keiichiro. "Who is he?"

"This little puppy, is none other then Tohma," said Zakuro, stroking the wolf's head.

"Puppy?"

"Wait…Tohma? How did that happen?" asked Keiichiro.

"We don't know, there was a Mew Aqua placed in that cave," Zakuro tried to explain, pointing behind her, "I tried to get it but there was some sort of energy surge or something. I couldn't remove my hand from it. Then Tohma," she nudged the wolf with her heel, "tried to get my hand off and…this happened."

"So what happened to the Mew Aqua?" asked Keiichiro.

Zakuro shrugged. "It was gone when we got back up."

"And you go through all that and you didn't even get the Mew Aqua?" asked Keiichiro, crest fallen.

"I'm sorry we couldn't have been put in more danger for you," mumbled the wolf.

"Tohma…I'm sure Keiichiro didn't mean it like that," reassured Zakuro, nudging the wolf's sides.

"What'd he say?" asked Keiichiro.

"Nothing," Zakuro waved his question off.

"All right, my next question is, what do we do now?" asked Keiichiro.

"Why you ask that?" asked Zakuro.

"Well, we really can have a giant wolf walking along the beach now can we?"

"Sure we can," said the wolf, walking off towards the beach.

"W-wait!" shouted Keiichiro.

Everyone's immediate reaction to a large wolf on the beach was fear, just as Keiichiro thought. But after seeing who was on top of the wolf, they started to applauded.

"Ah great, more publicity," moaned Zakuro.

"Hey, it's your own fault that you hurt yourself," mumbled the wolf.

"You know, you didn't have to carry me," retorted Zakuro.

"And you could have just walked off by yourself?"

"Keiichiro could have carried me."

"I…uh…"

Zakuro looked down at the wolf.

The wolf paused.

"That's so sweet…" cooed Zakuro, stroking the wolf's neck.

They reached the area that they had set up the beach equipment and the wolf lowered itself so that Zakuro could climb off.

"Thanks," mumbled Zakuro blowing lightly on the wolf's ear.

It twitched.

"That's so cute!" squealed Zakuro.

"That tickled," growled the wolf.

Zakuro giggled.

Ichigo, Lettuce, and Eirika all rushed over to where Zakuro and the wolf were as Keiichiro reached them as well.

"Is it friendly, Zakuro?" asked Ichigo, nervously.

"Of course he's friendly you guys," laughed Zakuro, "Guy's, this is…" The wolf nudged her leg. She looked at it and the wolf shook its head.

"The wolf is what, Zakuro?" asked Lettuce.

"This is…a very friendly wolf," Zakuro made up an excuse for what she had previously said.

"Can we pet it?" asked Eirika, excitedly.

The wolf rolled its eyes. "Just like little girls."

"Go ahead," said Zakuro.

The girls squealed loudly and started to pet the wolf all over.

"It's so fluffy!!!"


	20. Chapter 20

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 20

"So, start from the beginning again."

"I've told you a thousand times already, Ryou," sighed Zakuro, one hand absent mindedly stroking the wolf's head. They were all back in the hotel, Ryou, Zakuro, Keiichiro, and the wolf were all congregated in Ryou's and Keiichiro's room. Zakuro was explaining what had happened in the cave to Ryou. "We found the Mew Aqua, I tried to grab it, there was a surge of power, Tohma touched the Mew Aqua, we were both thrown back, and Tohma turned into a wolf."

Ryou put a hand to his chin. There were a few minutes of silence. "I don't know," he said finally. "Maybe we should go back and check it out."

"No, I don't want to ruin it for you all just cause I look like this," said the wolf.

"Come on, Tohma, we got to find out what's going on with you," said Zakuro.

"She's right, Tohma, there's something unnatural here and we need to find out what," said Keiichiro.

"Well, nothing ever seems to be unnatural ever since I met you guys," murmured the wolf.

"Not the kindest thing to say, Tohma," said Zakuro, her face showing the slightest sigh of hurt, her hand ceasing its stroking.

The wolf licked her hand. "My bad, Zakuro, my bad," the wolf pined.

"See, Tohma, it's already affecting you," Zakuro flung her arms in the air.

"No it's not," said the wolf.

Zakuro started to scratch behind the wolf's ear. The wolf started to pant heavily, tongue lolling out. The moment she stopped, he stopped too.

"See…"

"Ok, ok, ok…" sighed the wolf, "But, let's leave the other's out off all this, 'kay? I really don't want them to worry over me."

"Fine, us three," Keiichiro pointed to himself, the wolf, and Zakuro, "will go back to the city."

"Why not just the two of us?" asked the wolf, "Wait, you understood me?"

"For the record, I still have no idea what you are saying, and we need Zakuro to see if we can't place the powers into her and get it out of you."

"Wait, so you know reverse this?" asked Zakuro, her hand resuming its scratching.

"Nope"

They all stared Keiichiro.

"What I never said I did."

"That is true," mumbled the wolf.

"So when should we leave?" asked Zakuro.

"We could go now," replied Keiichiro, looking out the window. "It's still sunny out, we should be able to make it back before night."

"Let's go then," said Zakuro, getting up, "Come on boy!" she called to Tohma.

"Har har very funny," but he bounded forward nevertheless.

They drove for about an hour and got back to Tokyo at about eight at night. They pulled up in front of the café and got out of the car.

"Ah, come on, you guys can't even stay away for more than two days!" shouted a voice.

"Kisshu!" snarled the wolf, turning around.

"Down boy!" shouted Kisshu.

"I've brought you a couple of friends, maybe you'll find them to have a lot in common with you," said Kisshu, snapping his fingers.

Stepping out of the darkness was what might as well have been werewolves. Larger than the average human and standing on its hind legs was a humongous wolf.

Zakuro withdrew her pendant. "Mew mew Zakuro, metamorphosis," she shouted.

There was a flash of light and Mew Zakuro appeared. The moment she had transformed, she sank to her keels.

"Wh-what's going on?" Zakuro mumbled.

"Keiichiro!" barked the wolf.

"Zakuro," Keiichiro came running up to them. He looked at the wolf, "Can you handle him?"

The wolf nodded, and Keiichiro carried Zakuro into the café. Zakuro could be heard say that she wanted to fight too. The werewolf growled.

"Come on, we don't want to fight do we?" asked the wolf.

"That's a matter of opinion isn't it?" was the werewolf's reply.

"I'll let you two deal with this," said Kisshu, and he disappeared.

The werewolf charged and sent to gray wolf flying into a nearby hedge. The wolf sprang out and latched itself to the werewolf's neck. The wolf bit once, twice, three times, and kicked off of the werewolf's chest. Bleeding, the werewolf thought it would be a good time to retreat, and vanished. The gray wolf huffed and walked into the café.

"She's asleep right now," Keiichiro informed the wolf, as it came into the bedroom they were in. Zakuro was fast asleep on the bed. "The transfer of power must have weakened her. We'll need to transfer the powers back and soon."

The wolf nodded.

"You should get some sleep. I'll see if I can't do something about all this," said Keiichiro, getting up from the side of the bed.

The wolf nodded again and Keiichiro left. As the door closed, the wolf leapt onto the bed lightly and curled up next to Zakuro. She giggled slightly at the touch of the wolf's fur on her face and wrapped her arms around it.


	21. Chapter 21

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 21

"Ok, I'm starting it."

It was morning and Keiichiro had devised a way to transfer Zakuro's energy back into her with the help of the device that they had used to make them the Mew Mews in the first place. Zakuro and the wolf stood in two chambers containing multiple cords and wires sticking out of the chambers.

"You sure that this will work?" asked Zakuro.

"I'm 85 percent sure of it," replied Keiichiro, taking a sip of coffee and typing on the computer.

"And the other 15 percent?" mumbled the wolf.

"Ok, I'm starting the machine up at a quarter power," called Keiichiro, setting his cup above the computer.

The chambers closed and there was a loud humming sound. A bright, violet light started to escape the two chambers. After about a minute, the light started to fade and one of the chambers opened up. Zakuro stumbled out. Keiichiro got up.

"How do you feel?" he asked Zakuro.

"A lot better, thanks," Zakuro nodded.

At that moment, the second chamber opened. The wolf sat there, scratching its ear.

"There must be more energy in you than I thought," said Keiichiro with a sigh.

"But I feel back to normal, 100 percent," said Zakuro.

Keiichiro placed a hand on his chin. "Well, you're energy could have started to replenish itself so not all of the energy emitted into Tohma was needed to get you back to normal. The regeneration of your energy seems quite potent."

"So how do we get him back to normal?" asked Zakuro, jerking a thumb at the wolf.

Keiichiro was silent for a few seconds. He shook his head, "I have no idea," he said throwing his hands in the air. As his hands fell back down, however, they hit the cup set over the computer, causing it to crash down onto the keyboard, coffee spilling everywhere.

Suddenly, the chambers closed again, the wolf still inside one of them, and the bright light appeared again.

"Tohma!" shouted Zakuro.

Electricity started to fly from the chambers and sparks flew from the computers.

"His receiving full current!" shouted Keiichiro as Zakuro gave a cry out in panic.

As they looked on in horror as the machine came to a stop. The chamber reopened an a large amount of smoke billowed out.

"Tohma?" called Zakuro.

"Yeah I'm here," came Tohma's voice. As the smoke cleared some more, they saw Tohma sitting in the center of the chamber. Zakuro ran up and hugged him. "Keiichiro, couldn't you have found a better way to do that? That wasn't the greatest ride I've been on."

Keiichiro chuckled lightly, "Sorry."

Zakuro helped Tohma up as they both walked over to the wrecked computers.

"So what do we do with those," asked Tohma, nodding at the computers.

"There's nothing we can do, they're beyond repair now," said Keiichiro, wiping up some of the spill.

"Well in any case, we can leave that until the vacation is over right?" Zakuro asked. "I really want to get back to my break from all the filming and school."

"Yeah, I guess," Keiichiro sighed. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"How about I drive?" said Zakuro, "You look like you could use a rest."

"Thanks, Zakuro," Keiichiro smiled.

"Why can't I drive?" asked Tohma.

"Who knows what sort of side effect may still be affecting you," Zakuro pointed out.

Tohma sighed, "Fine."

They arrived back at the hotel about an hour later. Ryou and the other girls were no where to be found. Keiichiro, Zakuro, and Tohma figured that they had gone down to the beach, changed, and headed down themselves. They found Ryou and the girls on the beach, the girls trying to get Ryou to let them bury him in the sand.

"Yo!" called Tohma.

"Hey, it's good to see _you_ again," said Ryou.

Tohma, Zakuro, and Keiichiro knew what he meant, and the three girls ran up to them.

"Hey guys, where'd you guys go?" asked Ichigo.

"Home. There was something that had to be taken care of," explain Tohma.

The girl's seemed to accept that answer and they went back to ask Ryou to let them bury him.

"Hey, girls, why not bury Tohma instead," said Zakuro, enthusiastically.

"Haha, let's not," said Tohma, in mock laughter.

Zakuro gave a sweet giggle and glanced at Keiichiro and Ryou, who took the hint. "You don't have a choice in the matter," she said sweetly, as Keiichiro and Ryou started to advance on Tohma.

"Come guys, you're not really going to do this, are you?" asked Tohma. Keiichiro and Ryou kept advancing, the girls behind them. "Oh, hell no."

Keiichiro and Ryou pounced on him, holding Tohma down as the girls started to pour sand on Tohma. After a few minutes, the only thing visible was Tohma's head.

"Thanks a lot, you two," Tohma said sarcastically.

"Any time," said Ryou, patting the pile of sand on Tohma.

"Just tell us if it's too heavy, 'kay? We'll get rid of some if it is," said Zakuro.

"Yeah, yeah," said Tohma, lazily, leaning his head back to rest on the sand.

Then, the girls turned on the other two guys. "So, who's next?" asked Eirika, holding a shovel in her hand.

The smiles vanished from Keiichiro's and Ryou's faces as they started to back away from the girls, pushing the other one in front as a shield. In the end, it took the combined efforts of Ichigo, Lettuce, and Eirika to pin Keiichiro down, Zakuro pouring the sand, and Ryou laughing his head off. Tohma started to swift around underneath the sand, trying to get out. When the girls had finished with Keiichiro they start on Ryou, who was caught by surprise, since he was still laughing. By that time, Tohma had already gotten free, though no one had noticed. As the girls started to bury a protesting Ryou, Tohma went over and knelt down next to Keiichiro and started to whisper in his ear. A smile crept on to his face and he nodded. Tohma helped dig Keiichiro out and together, they crept up on the girls from behind. Suddenly, Keiichiro grabbed Ichigo around the waist and lifted her off the sand as Tohma grabbed Zakuro. With Zakuro and Ichigo tucked under their arms, Keiichiro and Tohma lifted Eirika off the sand too, one holding each side of her. Ryou sprung up and picked Lettuce up too. Tohma looked at Ryou and nodded towards the ocean. Ryou nodded back and the three of them started to walk off in that direction, the girls struggling to get loose.

"This is payback, you aren't going to get out of this," informed Tohma, holding tight to a squirming Zakuro.

When they had reached the water, Keiichiro, Tohma, Ryou hurled the squealing girls into the water. The girls got up and ran after the guys, Ichigo chasing Keiichiro, Lettuce running after Ryou, and Zakuro and Eirika both pursing Tohma. Keiichiro and Ryou were chased into the waters and were having a water fight with Ichigo and Lettuce. Tohma, however, stopped at the mouth of the cave they had found the Mew Aqua, and sat against the wall, trying to catch his breath. Zakuro and Eirika can up beside him, panting, and Zakuro fell right into Tohma's lap, and Eirika seated herself next to him.


	22. Chapter 22

Summary: A childhood friend comes back to Japan, and Zakuro meets him for the first time in eight years. The only problem being he doesn't remember anything about living in Japan. Can she remake their old friendship, or will a new closer relationship form?

Chapter 22

Zakuro and the others spent the entire day at the beach, and only started to head back when it was about time for dinner. They went to a local restaurant, the girls making the guys pay for the check, and went back to the hotel to lounge around. They were all sitting in Keiichiro's and Ryou's room as the girls were gossiping about one thing or another, and the guys were hovering over Ryou's laptop.

"Hey, Tohma," Ichigo called at him, remembering something. Tohma and the others looked up from the computer.

"Yeah?" asked Tohma.

"You missed it," said Ichigo excitedly, "Zakuro had this huge wolf tailing her the whole day yesterday. It was so cute, you should've seen it."

"I'm sure I'll see it one day," said Tohma, his mouth forming a slight smile.

Ryou started to laugh slightly.

"What?" asked Ichigo, "What's so funny?"

Ryou looked up, maintaining a straight face. "Nothing," said Ryou, as if annoyed at the question.

Lettuce looked up at the clock set between Ryou's and Keiichiro's beds. It was nearing ten. "We'd better get to bed Ichigo, we won't want to be tired tomorrow will we?" she said.

Ichigo nodded with a yawn. "Yeah, you're right," she said rubbing her eyes. "We'll be going to bed now," she said to the others. The others nodded and Ichigo and Lettuce left the room.

Tohma threw himself onto one of the beds and Zakuro crawled over and rested herself next to him.

"What are you guys working on?" asked Zakuro, stifling a yawn.

"Nothing, Ryou's just on dating websites trying to find himself a girlfriend," laughed Tohma.

"Haha, you think you're so funny don't you," sneered Ryou, returning to his work.

"Yes I do, I'm glad you see it too," said Tohma, throwing a pillow at Ryou.

Ryou turned around, caught the pillow, and threw it back. It hit Tohma in the face, knocking him backwards. Keiichiro and Zakuro both snorted with laughter. When Tohma didn't get up and clutching his chest, Zakuro lifted the pillow off his face.

"You ok, Tohma," asked Zakuro, little worried.

"Y-yeah. It's just that my chest really hurt," said Tohma, wincing.

"Maybe you should lie down," said Keiichiro, slightly concerned, as Tohma tried to sit himself up. "We still don't know if the power transfer had any side-effects."

Tohma shook his head. "No, I'm fine," he said, getting up. "I think I'll just get a drink of water."

Tohma walked over to the bathroom sink, poured himself a glass of water, and gulped it down. He placed the cup down, clutching the sides of the sink, breathing heavily. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw a slight change in his eyes. He bent forward, looking closer at his reflection. He could've sworn his eyes weren't as dark as they were now. The clock chimed 10 o'clock. Tohma felt another stab of pain, this time in his arm.

"Aaagh!" He was shaking violently when Zakuro and Keiichiro came over to see if everything was alright.

When they got there, they saw Tohma change before their eyes. Tohma was enveloped in a white light. When the light went away, a gray wolf was standing where Tohma was a second ago.

"Tohma!" Zakuro cried out in surprise.

"What am I doing looking like this again?" barked the wolf, looking itself over.

"Keiichiro, why did this happen," cried Zakuro, rushing over to the wolf's side, wrapping her arms around the wolf.

"I don't know," said Keiichiro, running his hand through his hair. "He must still have more energy left inside him."

"What do we do now?" asked Zakuro.

Ryou had walked over at this point. "Keep him in your room for tonight, 'kay?" he said, "We'll see if he doesn't turn back or something."

Zakuro nodded and led the wolf out of the room. She opened her own room and she and the wolf walked in.

"I don't get it, I thought this was over with," moaned the wolf.

"I know, I did too," said Zakuro, sitting down on her bed.

"So what do we do now?" asked the wolf.

"I guess sleep and see what happens in the morning," said Zakuro.

Zakuro lied down on the bed as the wolf walked around in a small circle and curled up on the floor.

"You know, you don't have to sleep on the ground," said Zakuro, making room on the bed for the wolf.

"It's alright," said the wolf from the ground.

"You sure?" asked Zakuro, scooting back into the middle of the bed.

The wolf nodded.

"Alright then. Good night," said Zakuro, resting her head on her pillow.

"Yeah, good night," said the wolf, resting its head on the floor.


	23. Chapter 23

Yea! I just love it when ideas come to me so quickly!!

* * *

Chapter 23

Tohma had no idea what was going on. He barely even registered what was happening. His sight was blurred and all of his senses were faint. There was a slight, familiar scent in the air. That was Zakuro, he knew. He could just barely hear her soft breathing. It wasn't until he felt pressure on his nose did he notice that he was on the move. Zakuro had not closed the door completely when they entered so Tohma was able to open it with his nose. He felt the cool air sweeping over his face as he ran along the balcony of the hotel. He opened another door and entered. There were billions of new smells. Some of them Tohma registered as food, others he wasn't so sure. Suddenly, Tohma noticed some movement in the corner of his eye. He looked around to see a person standing there, though Tohma was unable to distinguish who it was, his vision being less the a fourth of what it normally was. The person was gesticulating wildly, shouting something that Tohma could not distinguish. Tohma growled, though he did not mean to. Tohma suddenly had a sense of danger and saw a shiny object in the man's hand. Normally, if Tohma were in control of his movements, he would have backed away, but he didn't. He bounded forward, jaws closing around the person's wrist. The man yelled in pain as Tohma sunk his teeth into the guy's wrist, feeling the bones splintering underneath his teeth. Tohma could taste the man's blood in his mouth. The person looked into Tohma's eyes, and Tohma could smell fear in the air. Suddenly, the man swung violently, throwing Tohma off and crashing into a cabinet. Pots and pans fell onto of Tohma head. Dazed, Tohma made a dash for it. He ran all the way up to Zakuro's room, into the door, and ran headlong into Zakuro's bed, blacking out.

Zakuro woke with a start. She could've sworn that something had collided with her bed. She looked down and saw the wolf curled up around where she last saw him. She looked over at the door and saw it wide open.

"Oh dear, did I leave that opened?" she said aloud.

Zakuro got out of bed and closed the door. As she walked back to the bed, she bent down and kissed the wolf on the head, tucking a stand of hair behind her ear. The wolf's ear twitched when Zakuro brushed it slightly. Zakuro giggled and crawled into bed again.

The next morning, Zakuro and the wolf both awoke with a start by a rapid knocking at the door. Tohma stretched out.

'That was one weird dream,' he thought.

"Fujiwara Zakuro, this is the police. We ask you to open this door at once," shouted a gruff voice.

Zakuro and the wolf stared at one another fearfully, wondering what on Earth was going on.

"O-one moment," Zakuro called.

She climbed out of bed, slipped into her slippers, and put on a jacket. She went to the door and opened it, the wolf following right behind her. The door opened to reveal two police officers standing outside the door way.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" asked Zakuro.

"Is it true that you are in possession of a large gray wolf at this time?" asked one of the police officers, even though he was looking right at it.

Zakuro turned and looked at the gray wolf standing behind her. "Yes, as you can see I do," she said curiously. "What is this about?"

"Did you close the door to your apartment room last night?" asked the police officer.

"Yes I did," Zakuro said, but then she remembered, "No, wait, I think I accidentally left it open. I woke up in the middle of the night and found it open so I got up and closed it."

"In that case I will need you to come this way ma'am," said the police officer, moving away from the door. "The wolf will need to come too."

Zakuro and the wolf followed the two police officers, very confused. The reached the kitchens and the police officers opened the door. Zakuro cried out in shock to see the place trashed. Pots and pans lining the floor, a trash can overturned, and one of the chefs on the floor, knife in hand and his wrist bleeding severely, several paramedics around him, helping him bandage his wrist.

"What happened here?" asked Zakuro.

"We were wondering the same thing," said one of the officers.

"This man was in here last night when a big gray wolf came in here," said the other. "The man tried to scare it away with that knife, but the wolf attacked him. This man was able to throw the wolf into that cabinet and the wolf ran out. We found this on the cabinet." The police officer held up a plastic bag with a tuff of gray hair inside it. Wolf's hair.

"Are you blaming my wolf on this?!" shouted Zakuro, arms wrapped around the wolf's neck.

"Well, Ms. Zakuro, this is the only grey wolf in the vicinity," said the first officer, grimly. "Unless, you're suggesting that there is another wolf in this area, we will have to take this one into custody."

"You can't!" shouted Zakuro, her gripped tightening around the wolf, tears nearly coming out of her eyes.

"Well, we'll soon see," said the second officer. "This man said he saw the wolf clearly and remembers exactly what it looks like. If this man confirms that this is the wolf…well…"

The first officer caught the wolf with a chained leash and dragged it over to the man, despite Zakuro's protests.

"Take a good look sir," said the officer, "Is this the wolf that attacked you?"

The man stared heavily at the wolf. After a few minutes the man, spoke up. "No," he said, shaking his head.

"Are you sure?" asked the second officer, walking over to them.

The man nodded. "I'm positive," he said confidently. "It's its eyes. The one that attacked me had a sort of poisonous yellow to them. You now, a yellow with a shade of brown in them and an even smaller amount of green to it? This one has a pure black color to it."

Zakuro sighed in relief, but the wolf seemed uneasy.

"You can let him go, officers," said the man.

They nodded, released the wolf, and left. The wolf walked slowly up to the man and started to lick his wound.

"Ain't that sweet of it?" said the man, stroking the wolf's head.

The wolf stopped its licking and started to back away, almost fearfully.

"What's wrong boy?" asked the man.

Zakuro bent down and knelt next to the wolf. "What is it Tohma?" she asked softly, stroking the wolf's head.

The wolf didn't respond, but went over to the cabinet and started to sniff around. When he got a scent, he looked up, fear and terror in its eyes. Zakuro walked over to him.

"What is it?" she asked again.

"Zakuro…" the wolf mumbled, tears visible in its eyes. "Zakuro…It was me…"

"What?!" Zakuro whispered.

"It was me…" the wolf repeated, "I did this…"

And with that, the wolf bolted out of the room and into the streets, in the direction of the beach.

"Tohma!!" Zakuro shouted after the wolf, but the wolf did not turn back.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"Keiichiro!" shouted Zakuro, pounding on his door. "Keiichiro! Ryou! Wake up!"

Ryou answered the door. "I don't remember asking for a wake-up call," he said moodily. "What do you want?"

"It's Tohma," said Zakuro in a worried tone. "He ran off somewhere and I can't find him at all."

Keiichiro walked up, scratching his head. "Why'd he run away?" At the sight of Keiichiro behind him, Ryou ducked back into the room.

"I don't know, we were called down for question by the police," Zakuro tried to explain. "They said a wolf attacked one of the chefs and they thought it was Tohma. The chef himself said it wasn't him, but Tohma for some reason said it was. It must've scared him or something because just he took off. What if something happens to him, we got to find him."

Keiichiro placed a comforting hand on Zakuro's shoulder, trying to calm her down. "Don't worry Zakuro, we'll find him. And remember, Tohma isn't just a wolf, he has a human mind. He'll be able to take care of himself."

"But we still have to find him," said Zakuro, "What if something happens and even with a human mind he's in trouble."

"Well then stop standing there, get dressed, let's go," said Ryou, reappearing, fully clothed.

A few minutes later, they met outside the hotel and went out to search for Tohma. They scanned near the restaurants that they had been to and asked around. They found Eirika a little later on during their search. They asked her if she had seen Tohma, but they called him Zakuro's wolf, and Eirika said she had actually ran into it a little while ago. They all ran to where Eirika had last saw Tohma. They stopped at the cave along side the ocean.

"I was taking a walk when I saw your wolf run into there," Eirika said, pointing into the cave.

Without a moment's hesitation, Zakuro ran into the cave. "Tohma!" she called. "Tohma you in here?"

"Wow she must really be hung up on Tohma to be calling her wolf by Tohma," Eirika said to Keiichiro and Ryou.

"You have no idea," said Ryou, as they followed Zakuro into the cave.

They searched for several minutes. Finally, they found Tohma, as a human, sitting next to the stalagmite where they had found the Mew aqua. The thing was, he wasn't alone. Curled on his lap were two wolf pups, sleeping in his crossed legs.

"Tohma!" Zakuro shouted suddenly, causing Tohma to jump slightly and the pups to wake with a start.

The two pups looked fearfully at the newcomers and tried to hide themselves underneath Tohma's shirt.

"Shh," Tohma said, putting a finger to his mouth. He carefully pulled the pups out and set them on his lap again.

"Are you ok?" asked Zakuro, rushing up to Tohma.

"Yeah," Tohma said, looking slightly bothered, petting the pups with his hands.

"Where's Zakuro's wolf?" asked Eirika, looking around the cave.

"He's alright, coped up for now, he's had a rough morning," said Tohma, looking down at the pups.

"Where did you find those two?" asked Ryou.

"They were here when I arrived," said Tohma. "Can't find their parents anywhere."

Zakuro bent down and gently picked up a squirming pup. "Keiichiro, could you and Eirika continue looking for my wolf, please?" she said.

Keiichiro took the hint. "Sure," he said. "Come on Eirika."

Keiichiro and Eirika walked off, deeper into the cave.

"How are you?" asked Zakuro.

Tohma didn't answer, but the wolf pup that Zakuro was holding spoke up. "Let go of me!" the pup howled. Zakuro promptly dropped the pup in surprise.

The pup landed on the ground and ran into Tohma's lap again.

"How did you change back?" asked Ryou.

Tohma looked up at him, "I just did, it's not like I did it myself," he said, no life in his voice.

"What happened to you?" asked Zakuro, getting scared at how lifeless Tohma seemed.

"I don't know. The man's blood, it tasted really familiar, like I've tasted it before," Tohma tried to explain. "The area around the cabinet, it had my smell around it. It was me who attack the man."

"Why did you do that?" asked Ryou.

"I-I don't know," said Tohma, looking more and more distressed. "It was like a dream. I mean I saw myself attack the man, put it was like I had no control over my movements. I could barely see, hear, smell, and all the other senses."

"It is possible that your wolf state may still have a feral mind," thought Ryou.

"So you mean that Tohma really was a wolf last night," asked Zakuro in disbelief.

Ryou nodded. "It would explain his lack of senses. Tohma's conscious was awake at the time, but the wolf's mind was much stronger."

Tohma sighed and looked down at the two pups.

"Where did you find these two?" asked Ryou.

"I told you, I found them here," said Tohma.

"So what happened to you two?" Zakuro asked the two pups.

"And we should tell a human why?" one pup asked the other.

"Because I can understand every word you say," said Zakuro, picking the pup up by the scuff of its neck.

The pup tried to kick Zakuro with its miniature paws and biting her with its teeth.

"Knock it off, squirt!" Tohma growled.

Ryou blinked. It was only for second, but he thought that Tohma eyes turned slightly yellow. The pup immediately stopped kicking around.

"Thanks, Tohma," said Zakuro, who didn't see anything.

"We got lost, found another wolf in the area, followed him here, and he changes into him," said the pup quickly. "You happy? Now let go!"

Zakuro dropped it on the floor and the pup crawled over to Tohma again.

Just then, Eirika returned with Keiichiro. "Sorry, Zakuro, we couldn't find it," she said.

"That's okay," said Zakuro, "It actually found us and I told it to go back home, so it did."

Eirika bought it. She sighed with relief. "That's good," she said.

"Uh, Eirika, don't you have to go to work?" asked Keiichiro.

Eirika looked confused, and then realized what Keiichiro was saying and gasped. "Oh no, I have work to go to," she cried. And she ran off.

"Now that she's gone, did you find out why you transformed?" asked Keiichiro.

"Like you gave us enough time to figure that out," Tohma said flatly.

"Emotions," Ryou suddenly said.

"What?" they all asked.

"You're emotions cause you to transform," said Ryou, "Happiness, anger, etc."

"That's ridiculous," said Tohma.

"Really now?" asked Ryou, poking him in the head. Tohma ignored him and Ryou kept poking.

"Quit it!" Tohma roared. "AW!!!" Tohma clutched at his chest. He was enveloped in a bright light. When the light dimmed, a wolf stood where Tohma was moments before.

"Whoa, you are right," mumbled Zakuro. "WHOA!" The wolf snapped at her.

The wolf backed away, growling.

"Yep, definitely feral," mumbled Ryou.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The wolf growled at Zakuro, Ryou, and Keiichiro as it backed away from them, the two pups running off deeper into the cave..

"Hey, Zakuro," said Ryou. "Maybe it's a good time to introduce this side of Tohma to your own other side."

Zakuro nodded. "Mew mew Zakuro, Metamorphosis!" Zakuro transformed into her Mew form.

The wolf's growls started to subside, but not before Zakuro tackled it to the ground, pinning it there.

"Come on, Tohma, I know you're in there," said Zakuro.

"Who the heck is Tohma?" growled the wolf.

"You can talk?!" exclaimed Zakuro in surprise. She looked at Ryou and Keiichiro, who shook their heads.

"No, it's your powers again," said Ryou.

"What did you do with Tohma?" Zakuro forced onto the wolf. "The human that turned into you!"

"Forget about that guy," said the wolf with a smirk, "why don't you ditch that human form and come with me, as a full wolf."

Angered and disgusted, Zakuro slapped the wolf on the jaws, causing it to jerk around underneath her. She removed herself from on top of the wolf.

"Listen to me," Zakuro hissed, menacingly, "You will give Tohma back control of his body this instant."

"Sorry, your mate's not here right now," the wolf continued to smirk. "But when he wakes up again, I'll tell him you rang."

"He is not my 'mate', got that?" Zakuro hissed at the wolf, keeping her voice to a low whisper, prevent Ryou and Keiichiro to hear her.

"Aw…you'll crush his heart," the wolf teased.

"I'll crush your heart if you don't shut up," Zakuro said, glaring down at the wolf.

"Sorry, hun, you crush my heart, you crush you mate along with me," sneered the wolf.

"He's not my 'mate'!" Zakuro shouted, making Ryou and Keiichiro jump.

"Hee, not yet," the wolf whispered. Zakuro began to blush. "I see I hit a soft spot."

Zakuro turned around and stormed off towards the mouth of the cave.

Ryou and Keiichiro looked at each other, confused. "Zakuro, wait up," shouted Keiichiro.

The wolf suddenly called out, "Here, your mate's awake, guess my time's up."

But, before there was an answer, the change was already taking affect. With a flash of light, Tohma replaced the wolf.

"Finally you're back," Zakuro said with relief.

"Did 'he' say anything that's worth knowing about?" asked Tohma.

"Nothing you want to know," reassured Zakuro.

Later that day, Tohma and Keiichiro went back to the café to run a scan on Tohma.

"See anything?" Tohma called from inside a chamber.

"Dang you must love being possessed or something, that dang wolf's messing with your mind, I can't get a fixed reading" complained Keiichiro.

"You're complaining? Try having to put up with him. Now that I've found out that he's in here, he won't stop bugging me about Zakuro," Tohma said, leaning against the chamber doors.

Keiichiro made a noise of sympathy. "Well, that's all I can do now," he said, opening the chamber doors. Tohma stepped out. "The only thing you can do right now is to keep you're emotions under control."

"Any specifics?" asked Tohma.

"Mainly negative emotions such as anger and jealousy, things like that. But there is also the occasional effect happiness will cause," explained Keiichiro, shutting down the computers he was working at.

"I can't even be happy?" Tohma said in disbelief.

"Only at night," said Keiichiro, as he started to climb up the stairs, Tohma following suit. "But even then, you'll still be in control. Unless you happen to be asleep and the wolf's still awake."

"Great," Tohma sighed.

"Hey it's not all bad, just don't get mad at anyone," laughed Keiichiro.

"I'll make sure to 'eat' you first," Tohma hiss, causing Keiichiro to stop laughing immediately.

When the two of them returned, they were greeted by the others.

"Did you miss it again?" Ichigo asked in disbelief.

Tohma took a step back. "Miss what?" he asked, hesitantly.

"The wolf, I heard it was here last night," said Ichigo.

"No, I didn't miss it," said Tohma, flatly, walking past her and giving Zakuro a brief hug. "I would never miss it, whether I wanted to or not."

Zakuro looked up from underneath Tohma's arms, a slight look of concern on her face.

"What are you talking about, Tohma?" Lettuce asked, hesitantly.

Tohma didn't respond. He headed towards the door. "I'm going to experiment a little." He transformed as he walked out the door. They heard the door next to them close.

"Can someone explain what's going on?" Ichigo asked, running her hands through her hair frantically.

"Wolf must not be active," said Keiichiro, "That guy must like sleeping."

"Come again?" asked Zakuro.

Keiichiro sighed. "Might as well start from the beginning," he said. With Zakuro's help, Keiichiro explained to Ichigo and Lettuce how it all started out. "Tohma and I went back to run a scan to see what causes the transformation. After we did that, we headed back here. During that time, Tohma and the wolf had a little chat. To be honest, it got kind of annoying." Keiichiro rubbed his temples.

"Did you hear anything interesting?" asked Zakuro. "Like, maybe, why he attacked that chef?"

"He said he was hungry, so he went looking for food," Keiichiro said with a sigh.

"That's it?" Zakuro asked in disbelief. Keiichiro nodded. "Unbelievable. And why did he want to attack us."

"We weren't wolves… until you transformed, it claimed to be threatened," Keiichiro said.

"And it turned out to be a perverted git," Zakuro huffed.

"I didn't hear anything about it being perverted, or anything like that," said Keiichiro, a little taken aback.

"No, I bet you wouldn't have," muttered Zakuro.

Suddenly their all heard a loud howl. But to Zakuro, she heard words being shouted. "Let me out of here," came a whining voice. "Zakuro, you out there? Come on, hun, let me out of here. Your stupid mate shut the door and I can't get out."

Zakuro stood up and walked out of the room. They all heard the door next to them open, a moment of loving pining, then… the sound of a fist colliding with something hard. Then, the door was closed again, and Zakuro walked back into the room they were all sitting in, her knuckles slightly red.

"Hope, Tohma could forgive me for that," Zakuro moaned slightly.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

"You two are so lucky. I wish I could go to America too," said Ichigo with longing.

The summer had ended and Tohma and Zakuro were going to America. Tohma's parents had called him back and Zakuro had decided to go along.

"Tell me again why you guys are going again," said Ryou, "I understand why Tohma's going by why you?" he asked Zakuro.

"Why not? Even my manager said it was ok as long as I do several appearances in California," Zakuro pouted like a little child.

"Ugh, please don't do that," moaned Ryou.

"But how about school?" Lettuce asked.

"I attending his school as an exchange student," explained Zakuro.

When no one else could think of anything, Keiichiro spoke up. "What about the team?" he asked.

Zakuro's face faltered. "I'm sure you guys can take care of thing here, right?" asked Zakuro. "And the aliens haven't been nearly as active as last year."

Everyone thought about this for a moment. This was true. Ever since the Kuro incident, Kisshu, Taruto, and Pai have barely even tried attacking them.

"Fine, it's not like we have a choice anyways, you guys already got the plane tickets, not to mention we're already at the airport," Ryou sighed.

"Thank you," Zakuro said, with a wave of the hand.

Ichigo turned to Tohma. "Will you be ok, leaving with him in there?" she asked, pointing to Tohma's head.

"I'm sure I got Sir Drools-a-lot under control," Tohma said with a small laugh.

Ever since the wolf had become a part of Tohma, Tohma had been training himself to control the transformations. He's finally able to control when he transformers and when her wants to transform back. But if he gets too angry, the transformation is beyond he control and the wolf, whom they've named Kiba, meaning "fang".

"Let's just hope he doesn't bother us too much," mumbled Zakuro.

… Enough said…

Just then, a man in a black suit walked up to them. "Miss Zakuro, your plane awaits," he said with a slight bow.

"Make sure you write to us," said Ichigo, giving Zakuro a hug.

"Definitely," Zakuro said, smiling, as Tohma and Keiichiro shook hands.

They all waved good bye as Tohma and Zakuro headed of to board their plane. They spent the next several hours on the plane back to California.

"Ah, I can't want to see everyone again," Tohma said, stretching out in his chair. "You'll love'em, they're all really great. Well, Austin may be a jackass from time to time, but we've all learned to live with him."

"Come on, I doubt that his' that bad," said Zakuro, folding her arms across her chest.

Tohma laughed. "I'll let you decide whether he's bad or not for yourself," he said.

The plane started to descend down to the airport in California. They exited the gate and headed of towards the baggage claim. They got their bags and headed outside. After a few moments of waiting, Zakuro looked around.

"What are we waiting for?" she asked.

Tohma pointed at a mini-van pulling up. Before the mini-van even came to a stop, the side door opened and a young girl with dark hair of about ten jumped out.

"Tohma!" she called, leaping into Tohma's arms. "I missed you."

"Ran, how yah doing shorty?" said Tohma, lifting the girl up.

Ran pouted. "Mommy said I'm taller than you were at my age," she said.

"You just keep believing that," Tohma nodded, ruffling her hair.

At that moment, four others climbed out of the van. Two girls and two guys.

"Tohma, how are you," said one of the girls, hugging Tohma after he placed Ran on the ground.

"Not bad, how 'bout you, Adele, Kevin, Lucy, Austin?" asked Tohma, hugging the one named Adele back, while the other three nodded at the mention of their names.

Zakuro looked the five up and down. Ran's head was barely to Zakuro's chest, her black hair tied in a ponytail in back, and wearing a pair of fingerless gloves. Adele and Lucy were both Chinese. Adele, her waist long hair tied back, came to about Tohma's chin, while Lucy, with her hair down reaching no farther than her back, was slightly shorter and wearing a set of glasses. Austin was the only non-Asian there. Standing about a half-a-head taller than Tohma, pale skin and also wearing glasses, Zakuro didn't see him as bad a guy as Tohma said he was. Kevin she already knew. Is height being somewhere between Tohma and Austin, he looked like a bulldog, a lot of strength with no use for it all. Zakuro had actually met Kevin before she had met Tohma. They were both next door neighbors and it was Kevin who had introduced her to Tohma.

Kevin caught sight of Zakuro. "Hey, long time no see," he said, walking up to her.

"Hey, Kevin, how are yah?" she asked.

Kevin shrugged. "Okay I guess," he said, as Austin came up to them.

"You-your Zakuro, Fujiwara Zakuro, aren't you?" he stammered.

Zakuro smiled at him. "Yes, yes I am," she nodded.

"I know so much about you, I'm a big fan" said Austin.

Zakuro blink in surprise but smiled anyways.

"Don't flatter yourself too, Zakuro, Austin'll say that about any famous person he meets," said Lucy, jabbing him in the waist. "But nevertheless, Tohma's told us a lot about you in his letters."

"He did, did he?" said Zakuro, questioningly, looking over at Tohma, who was placing their luggage in the trunk of the van with Adele and Ran. "What did he say?"

"Pretty much that you're the greatest person he ever met," Lucy smirked.

"And is that a lie?" asked Tohma, closing the trunk and walking over to them.

"No, no," said Lucy, patting him on the shoulder, "You have great taste."

Zakuro blushed at this comment, but only to be seen by Lucy, who giggled.


	27. Chapter 27

I'm sorry...I know I haven't updated in a month and this chapter is extremly short, but I want you guys to know I not giving up! Just please bare with me...having several writers block...

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Chapter 27

Kevin drove the van towards Tohma's home as the occupants chatted happily about Tohma's trip to Japan. Adele, Ran, and Lucy all sat in the back row, Tohma and Zakuro in the middle, and Kevin and Austin in front. Tohma told them everything that had happened in Japan, even some parts of the girls' adventures as the Tokyo Mew Mews, after persuading Zakuro to let him tell, though not all of it. They had all promised not to repeat the stories and not to get over excited if Tohma were to transform. Tohma looked down at Ran's hands and noticed the gloves she was wearing.

"You're still wearing those, Ran?" he asked, somewhat surprised.

Ran nodded happily. "I wear them everyday," she said.

"I know you wanted them for your birthday, but usually you forget about the things you receive on your birthday and they lay forgotten around the house," Tohma said.

"It's cause you gave them to me," Ran smiled up at Tohma. "It's how I remembered you when you were in Japan."

"Don't you usually do that when the person's dead?" Austin asked from the front, earning him a smack on the arm from Kevin.

"Well…you could say that. After all…I was, well…" Tohma thought back to the Kuno incident, a part he skipped telling them.

Zakuro placed a hand on Tohma's arm.

"You're not saying that you died are you? Are you a ghost?" Ran asked, poking his arm. "But I can touch you and everything…"

Lucy sighed and pushed Ran's hand down. "That's completely impossible."

"You're absolutely right…" Tohma smiled. "Completely impossible."

The three in back gave him an odd look.

"We're here," Kevin said, breaking the silence.

Zakuro, Lucy, Adele, and Ran entered Tohma's house as the guys brought in the luggage. A dog ran up, barking like mad, circling around the four's ankles.

"H-huh?" Zakuro stepped back in surprise, almost stepping on the dog.

"Hey, Bowser! Let's go and play in the family room!" Ran said happily to the dog and took off, the little dog racing after her.

"Bowser?" Zakuro looked at the other two girls. "I don't really think the name fits him…"

"Ran named him," Tohma said, walking in the door. "She thought it was cute…"

"You're kidding right?" Zakuro said, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope…" Tohma turned to Kevin and Austin. "Help me?" He motioned to the suitcases in their hands.

They nodded and they all headed upstairs. Austin looked back at Zakuro but went upstairs.

"Careful Zakuro," Lucy said, cheerfully. "Austin's checking you out."

"For all that it's worth, he's not all that bad…" Adele laughed a little, giving Lucy a light shove.


	28. Chapter 28

Sorry people! Haven't updated in a long time I know...Just...not sure what to do...I have a general thought of what to do...but that's all I have...a general thought...I will continue the story...I just ask you all to just be patient... Thanks all

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Chapter 28

"Tohma…are you sure that we just go in?" Zakuro stood outside their classroom door.

"Yes…trust me…no one will care or know the difference…Everyone's new one the first day…it's not like what you're used to…"

"So, you two coming?" Lucy stuck her head out of the classroom.

Tohma nodded and lead Zakuro in. Austin and Kevin were both sitting in a corner along with Eirika.

"Why's she here?" Zakuro spoke in somewhat of a sour tone.

"Come on…she was rough with me for one day and you still hold a grudge till now…?"

"Yes…"

Tohma sighed. "Come on…" Tohma pushed Zakuro forward.

As they approached Eirika looked up. "Hey again!"

Zakuro nodded, sat down, and looked around. "Where's Adele?"

"Not here…she's not in our year…she is younger than all off us…" Lucy explained.

"By how much?"

Lucy held up a finger.

"Home room hasn't started yet…I'll be back later…" Tohma left.

"Where is…?" Zakuro watched Tohma leave.

"He's always doing this…going to see her everyday before class…" Austin said, shrugging.

"I swear…even when we were going out…he still found time to see her…If I didn't know better…I'd say he likes her…" Eirika sighed.

"Come on…she was one of his only friends after the accident…" Kevin cut in. "All the other kids always asked him about the crash and what it was like…Even me…Only she was the one who let him be…and he was thankful for that…That's how they basically met and they've been friends since…"

"So they're just friends…right?" Zakuro asked quietly.

"Don't worry, Zakuro…even if he's not here, you still got me." Austin patted Zakuro's shoulder.

"Yes…that is definitely reassuring…" Zakuro muttered as she got up. "I'll go look for them…what room?"

"Right above us…" Eirika pointed up. "Out the room to your right is a stairwell…"

Zakuro nodded and left the room. She took Eirika's instructions and peered into the room that was above the one she had left. Tohma was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall with Adele sitting, facing Tohma, on his legs, her head resting on his chest.  
"So…that's why you were cold towards others…you had an evil spirit in you?" Adele looked up at Tohma, chin on his chest.

"More or less…" Tohma nodded, rubbing his hand on her back.

"Geez…if you didn't change last night…I wouldn't have believed anything you've told me and the others…"

"But the other's didn't see…you only showed me…I wouldn't be surprised if the others didn't believe you…Ran young…she'll believe anything…" Adele said with a shrug.

Zakuro didn't hear the rest of what Tohma and Adele said, as she walked slowly back to the others.

"They had always said that it wasn't anything…just that they were really good friends…"

Zakuro looked up to see Kevin standing outside the classroom. "W-what do you mean?"

"They've been like that forever…well…they started around when Adele got to this school…"

"But-" Kevin interrupted Zakuro.

"It's just how Tohma display's affection…thrust me…if Lucy didn't smack him the first time he tried that…most likely he'd still hug her too." Kevin said with a chuckle.

Zakuro's mood seemed to lighten. "Thanks, Kevin…" You've always been looking out for us…"

Kevin gave her a thumbs up as the bell rang. "Come on…he'll be coming back…don't let him see you like that."

Zakura smiled and nodded, pushing negative thoughts away.


	29. Chapter 29

Ok...next chapter's up. Sorry if it was too long of a wait for some of you but I had a fox sitting on my head so I was a little slow...just kidding! It's a disease called writer's block that's plaguing me right now...I'll try and come up with new chapters as fast as I can for you all!

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Chapter 29

"So how's your first day?" It was lunch for Zakuro and had looked up to see Lucy staring back at her.

"I'm sorry…what?" Zakuro hadn't really been paying attention to her surroundings. She was feeling down at the moment, ever since homeroom. Not only did she feel troubled about Tohma and Adele, but she found out that she and Tohma had no classes together, unlike what she was used to, everyone having the same class with the same classmates every time. She was pretty sure that she could get her schedule changed, she was very influential, even if she wasn't famous, but somehow…that seemed like overdoing it, just to be with Tohma.

Lucy sighed and sat down in front of Zakuro. "Still thinking about Tohma and Adele?"

Zakuro blinked. "How did you-"

"Kevin told me…" Lucy said, cutting in. "Look…it's as plain as day that Tohma loves Adele…" Zakuro's heart sank. "But I know for a fact that that doesn't push you down to second. Tohma's always been with Adele, ever since he could remember." Zakuro understood what she meant and remembered what Kevin had told them about Adele and Tohma after the accident. "It's natural that they seem so close."

Though part of her cheered up slightly at the thought, Zakuro still felt bothered. Tohma was supposed to be her childhood friend, the one she loved with all her heart, yet here she was, having Tohma explained to her, as if she had just met him a little while ago.

"Hey! How's our famous girl doing?" Austin had sat down next to Zakuro, only to get kicked by Lucy under the table.

"How many times do we have to tell you, she doesn't want the publicity?" Lucy hissed.

Zakuro smiled a little. "It's ok Lucy…I'm ok with it…" She turned to Austin, who was rubbing the place Lucy had kicked him. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah…feeling great…" Austin scowled at Lucy, who stuck her tongue out at him.

A pair of arms wrapped themselves around Lucy's waist, pinning her arms to her side and squeezing her tight.

"ANDREW!!! HOW MANY TIMES MUST I SAY DON'T HUG ME!!!" The boy released Lucy and ran off, Lucy storming after him.

Austin laughed a little and Zakuro felt like this was a normal greeting for them. Austin turned to Zakuro. "So…how's your first day going for you?"

"Could be better…" Zakuro mumbled, her mind straying back to Tohma. She was brought back to Earth when Austin pulled her to him and hugged her gently. Just from the hug alone, Zakuro could already feel the difference between Austin and Tohma.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that. But I'm sure it'll get better. I'm mean it's not like you won't be able to see Tohma ever again, right? It's not the end of the world…" Austin asked as Zakuro peered up at him.

Zakuro smiled. "No…I guess your right…"

"Besides, you still have me…" Austin grinned.

"Somehow…I think I'd feel safer away from you…" Zakuro pushed Austin off of her, and he laughed.

"For some reason everyone says that."

"I wonder why?" Zakuro gave him a little shove as the bell rang.

They all got up.

"Well…I'll see you after school then. We're all meeting at Tohma's house." Austin said, and after Zakuro nodded, kissed her lightly on the cheek before walking off.

Zakuro stood there, watching him go, still feeling the ghost of the kiss on her cheek.

"He's always so forward…" Lucy had come back for her bag. The boy, Andrew, following her, rubbing his sides, evidently just being jabbed in the waist by Lucy. "Don't mind him, he's always hitting on someone…Just give him a smack if he does it again." Lucy smiled innocently and walked off, pulling Andrew along.

Zakuro thought about it but felt that even if he did try to hit on her again, she didn't think that she'd bring herself to stopping him…


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"Argh!!! I can't take it anymore!"

"Tohma! Stop this agony! Finish it now!"

"Tohma, if you love me then you'll end this quickly!"

"But…but it's…" Tohma hesitated, a war seeming to go on in his head.

"Tohma! Just do it now!"

"Alright alright! I'll do it! –Chomp– ...ARGH!!!! BRAIN FREEZE!!!!" Tohma clutched his head in agony, falling back and off his chair.

"Finally…" Kevin slumped against the table. "You always take too long to eat anything cold…"

"It's not my fault I get brain freeze so easily…you guys didn't have to wait you know…" Tohma got back onto his chair.

"Yeah…but it's funny to watch you in pain…" Austin chuckled, watching Tohma rubbing his head.

"Geez…I missed your antics…" Adele said, giggling.

"You guys are all so nice…" Tohma moaned sarcastically.

"You kids starting your homework yet?" It was Tohma's mother.

"Come on…School just started this week…you honestly think we have homework?" Tohma mumbled.

"Do you have homework?"

"…..Yeah…."

"Then do it…when you finish you guys can do what ever you want…"

"Alright…alright…"

"Um…I don't have any homework…could I go upstairs?" Adele asked, getting up.

"Of course…go right on up."

Adele got up and went upstairs.

"Why does she want to go upstairs?" Tohma asked, books in hand. "What's upstairs?"

"Your room…after you left to Japan, she spent so much time in your room when ever your mom invited us from time to time." Austin mumbled, the only one not yet taken out his books.

"That's either really sweet…your kinda creepy…" Zakuro murmured.

"Nah…she's not like that…I'm thinking it's just how she gets close to Tohma without actually having him there…" Lucy said cheerfully before clapping her hands to her mouth, looking apologetically at Zakuro.

Zakuro felt miserable. It seemed that, even with the past girlfriends, Tohma and Adele were always in love…and here she was, to Tohma, only meeting him about a year ago, and it felt like she was getting in between them. She got up, excused herself and went out of the house. She needed air and to be alone…

"Zakuro….I didn't mean it like that…!" Lucy called.

Zakuro went out onto the deck and leaned against the side, feeling the air pass through her hair. She jumped when a hand fell onto her shoulders, ears and tail popping out.

"Easy…it's just me…" Austin turned Zakuro to face him. If he had not been told about Zakuro's 'condition' he would've jumped back in surprise at her ears and tail, but only held a mild look of surprise when he saw.

Zakuro's ears and tail drooped when she saw it was only Austin. "What do you want…?"

"Just to see if you were ok…?" Austin said, understanding Zakuro's tone of voice and pushing the thought aside.

"Well…I'm fine…" Zakuro lied, turning around. Suddenly, she felt Austin run a hand down her tail, making her jump and feel flustered. She spun back around to face Austin. "What do you think you're doing grabbing my-" Zakuro was silenced as Austin kissed her. Ears perked and tail upright, she thought about pushing him off, to hit him for pushing himself onto her like this…but then…she relaxed…moving into the kiss, tail drooped again and ears pulled back in content.

They stayed like that until a series of barks brought them back down to Earth. The looked towards the door to see a large wolf slink away, Bowser barking at the canine that was intruding on his territory, though the wolf was easily three times bigger. The wolf turned and padded up the stairs, no doubt to his room for comfort.

* * *

Mwuahahahahaha!!!!!!! A plot twist and a cliff hanger!!! Can anyone be more evil than that?!


	31. Discontinued

Hello everyone. I apologize for not updating in a long long time. The thing is no ideas have been coming into my mind for a while now…the last couple chapters where thin as it is and I don't think I'll be continuing this story. There is no end to it at the rate that it's going. I'm very sorry for those who really liked reading this story but I'm afraid that it's not going anywhere and I see no ending to it. I appreciated all the reviews that I have received for this story and I thank you for them. But as of now, I pronounce this story as discontinued.


	32. Revamp

Attempting to revamp and make the writing much better...and maybe by doing so will give me new ideas…so stay with me and pray…


	33. New Story

A revamped version of this story has been started. Look it up! A Lone Wolf's Companion.


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